Movie Romance
‘Oh, Hi!’ Director Breaks Down That Surprise Ending: Did Iris & Isaac End Up Together?
[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Oh, Hi!]
We wouldn’t classify Oh, Hi! as a rom-com, though it certainly starts off like one. When Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman‘s Iris and Isaac set off on a romantic getaway, their relationship appears just as picturesque as their upstate New York surroundings. Things take a turn, however, when Isaac informs Iris that they’re not actually in a relationship. Cue a spiral of epic proportions from Iris, who was under the impression that she had a serious boyfriend.
From there, the film begins deconstructing everything it set up before. The sort-of couple had engaged in some light bondage that night, so Isaac was chained to their bed when the revelation happened. So, Iris decides to hold Isaac captive, determined to convince him that she’s relationship material over the next 12 hours.
Chaos ensues, which leads to a third act that most viewers — us included — probably didn’t expect. Isaac spends most of the movie trying and failing to escape, and even the arrival of Iris’ friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) and her boyfriend Kenny (John Reynolds) doesn’t help. Max proposes that they try out a potion (courtesy of her “witch” cousin) to erase Isaac’s memory.
Though it doesn’t have the intended effect, Isaac does have a mystical dream that night — which director Sophie Brooks confirmed is the result of the witchy concoction. The sequence includes a flashback to the couple’s third date in a bar, and then it jumps to a dream-version of Iris serenading Isaac in the woods outside their vacation rental. (She sings Dolly Parton‘s “Islands in the Stream,” if you were curious.) She ends it by whispering “I hate you” in Isaac’s ear.
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Up until that point, Brooks explained, the movie is entirely from Iris’ perspective. “We believe that he’s obsessed with her because Iris believes that,” she explained during a July 26 Q&A at AMC Lincoln Square in New York City. “That was always something that was an effort to have a shift in his perspective and to also play with, what is this spell doing?”
The bar scene, however, was a “late in the game addition” when she was having trouble casting the role of Isaac. “All of the producers and I had a discussion about like, ‘OK, what is there that we can do for that character to make it feel a little more beefed up?'” she said. “I think having that moment in the third act that feels really from his point of view, hopefully feels like the movie is more balanced and that this isn’t a takedown of men.”
Brooks continued, “He ultimately is someone who wants love and wants connection, but he has its own limitations. My dream is that he gets a therapist at the end of the movie. You know, he’s got to work on himself. But yeah, it felt like important to have those parts of his arc made clear so that we aren’t reducing it to just like, he’s just a bad guy.”
After Isaac pretends the memory spell worked — he overheard the girls making the plan — he manages to get away in Iris’ car. He’s not totally successful because he hits a tree and totals the car. Isaac tries to hobble back to Iris and the house for help, but he’s too injured to make it there. Iris finds him, and the two have a heart-to-heart.
Isaac, who explained earlier in the movie that he walked in on his dad cheating on his mom as a kid, tells Iris that he can’t give her what she wants. He doesn’t believe in longterm love, seeing it as something that always falls apart. Iris briefly argues against his point, but the two end up apologizing to each other for everything that went down. Iris is sorry for acting unhinged, while Isaac feels bad for not being honest with her.
The movie could’ve ended on a darker note, instead of with the former couple on not-so-terrible terms. For one, Iris could’ve been carted off to jail. According to Brooks, when she was pitching Oh, Hi! around, one studio said they would provide funding only if Iris killed Isaac at the end.
“We were like, that’s just not what the movie is, you know?” she said. “That could have been the ending, but to me, it’s more truthful and honest to have the ending that we had and to have them both taking a little responsibility. Not them ending up together, not like suddenly now everything’s peachy, but hopefully it’s satisfying for women to feel that he’s come around a little and apologized. It’s still not right, but yeah.”
Gordon, who also attended the Q&A, chimed in at that point. “This is [Brooks’] message to all of us that they’re going to find their way, whatever that will be,” she said. She got the crowd laughing when she added, “And maybe he dies in the ambulance… You just don’t know.”
What did you think of the ending? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
Oh, Hi!, In Theaters
