Comedy provides Dating Narcissist advice

Despite some rom-com elements, the movie You’re Dating a Narcissist! takes on a few serious elements while landing squarely in the chick flick genre. After all, plenty of women get involved with narcissists and could use some of the advice provided in the script by Jenna Milly and director Anna Marie Allison. Like Tina Fey with Clueless or Ava Duverney with Origin, the writers weave a list of accepted concepts into a cohesive story—just check out those narcissist guides in various online sites like “Psychology Today.” Neither as witty as Clueless nor deep as Origin, You’re Dating a Narcissist! provides some valid insights under director Allison’s light touch. Her major selling point for distribution comes by headlining supporting actress Oscar winner Marisa Tomei in a starring role. Though Tomei caught prognosticators off guard when she took home the statue for My Cousin Vinny, she showed real comic chops there and continues to use them as a protective mother trying to scare her daughter away from doing just what the title says. Narcissists, so the screenplay and real-life lists say, engage in gaslighting. They use a seller’s charm to push themselves forward. Not only that, they love romance and the chance to take center stage. Tomei’s mom Judy sees all this in Marco Pigossi as Theo—but since he looks and sounds great, perhaps she reads her own previous bad experiences into the mix. Intrusive or protective? A hard balance to play, and all of Tomei’s charm finds it hard to get beyond the many irritating behaviors her character displays. But the script also makes valid points avoiding tragedy and leading to the kind of comedy inherent to happy chick flicks so ultimately, You’re Dating a Narcissist! meets the desires of its target audience.