“Let me be your knight in shining armor,” Dom begs his husband Cole when they get into a spot of trouble while on vacation. It’s the moment when Brian Crano’s and David Craig’s I Don’t Understand You takes a turn from pure comedy into black comedy. Inspired in part by their own life, the married writer/director team debuted their new film at SXSW to thunderous applause and side-splitting laughs, shrieks, and screams.
(Lowell Meyer)
Dom (Nick Kroll, History of the World, Part II) and Cole (Andrew Rannells, Welcome to Chippendales) are a married couple who have been through the wringer in their efforts to adopt a child. They receive news that their dream of becoming fathers will soon come true when pregnant Candace (Amanda Seyfried, The Dropout) chooses them from a lineup of applicants… just as they get wheels up on an anniversary vacation to Italy. A close friend of Dom’s father surprises the couple with dinner at the closed restaurant of a renowned retired chef deep in the countryside, who has agreed to open her doors one last time for the two love birds. What could go wrong? Everything!
The title of I Don’t Understand You comes from Dom and Cole’s literal inability to speak Italian, despite Dom’s efforts to learn an entry-level amount through Duolingo. This leads to many hilarious moments, like thinking they’ve been insulted by a homophobic slur when they haven’t, not realizing when they have, and perceiving their lives to be in danger when they get stuck in the middle of nowhere during a storm. Their terror is expertly anchored by Italian actors Nunzia Schiana as retired chef Zia Luciana, Morgan Spector (Boston Strangler) as her gruff son, and Eleonora Romandini (The White Lotus) as his wife.
As a squeamish viewer, I was happy to find that I Don’t Understand You avoids getting explicitly gory, lightening up each bloody scene with absurd bits of comedy. Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells expertly navigate the shifts in tone, are believable as a couple, and deliver the joyful tears of fatherhood to great effect. Their unique brand of comedy is on display during the film’s more lighthearted moments, but they also prove themselves more than capable of delivering truly suspenseful performances.
Brian Crano (Permission) and David Craig (What to Expect) showcase how their strength as a couple transcends into their writing and directing. I Don’t Understand You is well-polished and tightly told at 96 minutes, with no dead space (pun intended) in this macabre farce. They take audiences on an insane trip, turning the heroes into antiheroes without ever losing the audience’s affection for them. Despite the depths of madness that Dom and Cole are subjected to, you never stop rooting for them to succeed in achieving their dreams of becoming dads.
I give I Don’t Understand You 5 out of 5 misspelled names on engraved knives.