Which Brings Me To You isn't your typical rom-com. Instead of watching Will (Nat Wolff) and Jane (Lucy Hale) fall in love over a course of weeks or months, they get together at the very beginning of the movie — and spend the rest of the film talking about their past relationships.
"We all sort of reminisce or romanticize or, in a negative way, live in our past relationships, and I think that that is what both Jane and Will have been doing," Lucy Hale tells me via Zoom. "They haven't really healed themselves. And so through telling these stories, it's like they get to make sense of how these people and these loves and these heartbreaks changed their lives and have molded them into who they are today."
Just like Jane, Lucy says that if she was trying to get to know someone that quickly, she'd go straight for the serious questions. "I'd go for the heavy hitters, like, tell me about your relationship to your mom and dad because I think that your childhood shapes who you are as a person," she continues.
What is Which Brings Me To You about?
Image via DECAL Releasing
Which Brings Me To You, which releases January 19, is totally for the romantics, even if Will and Jane are feeling a little bit burnt out on love. The story follows the pair as they meet at a wedding, hook up in a coat closet, then get to know one another through stories of their past relationships. It feels refreshing, exciting, and brand new because instead of a shiny version of love, it embraces the embarrassing, messy parts of romance movies can leave out.
"It got me thinking like how I used to dress like certain boyfriends or pick up habits from certain people," Lucy says. "Or the one that flipped my world upside down when that ended. So, yeah, I think this movie is gonna get people thinking about [their own past relationships]."
"I totally agree," Nat Wolff says. "This movie is almost the opposite of an awkward date where you're having a hard time being vulnerable, and you don't really know what to talk about. Whereas these two...end up just saying, 'Let's just bare all.' And in a certain way, this might be a healthy way for people to really connect, is to be totally, brutally honest."
"Bare all figuratively and literally!" Lucy jokes.
How long have Nat Wolff and Lucy Hale known each other?
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Even though Will and Jane have never met before, Nat Wolff says he's been waiting a decade to work with Lucy. While the pair became friends in 2014 following a red carpet and funny Twitter exchange, they hadn't worked together until this film. (They have, however, kept up with each other's projects and decided that Pretty Little Liars' Aria would love Will and Jane would get along with Paper Towns' Quentin).
Lucy Hale's involvement in Which Brings Me To You was a huge reason Nat Wolff was interested. "As soon as I saw that it was a romantic comedy and that Lucy Hale was attached, I was like, 'I gotta be part of this — and I'm gonna get to kiss Lucy Hale!'" Nat says.
The aforementioned kiss happens at the very beginning of the movie, when Will and Lucy are hooking up at a wedding. Even though intimate scenes are usually reserved for the latter half of filming, Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff filmed it on the first day.
"It kind of jumped us into it and we just had to kind of dive in," Nat says.
"I think it was our second scene we shot with each other," Lucy says. "But I think [director Peter Hutchings'] mentality around it was that they're just meeting for the first time anyway."
What's the message of Which Brings Me To You?
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Which Brings Me To You has the classic two-people-are-fated-to-meet plot line (which is *totally* giving "Invisible String" by Taylor Swift), and Lucy Hale is a firm believer that what's meant to happen will happen. "I always have the attitude of if something isn't right, it just makes more space for the right people to come into your life. So, if there's a bad date, it's just like, not in alignment with who you are," she says. "The people that are supposed to be in your life, guess what? You're not gonna have to chase them. You're not gonna have to beg them. They're gonna want to be in your life."
The way Will and Jane choose each other — and then push one another to make hard decisions and step out of their comfort zones — shows off a really beautiful aspect of love. One where we grow alongside the people we care the most about, actively choosing to move towards the future instead of being defined by the past.
Where can I watch Which Brings Me To You?
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Which Brings Me To You hits theaters on January 19! If you ask me, it's the perfect movie to watch with all your best friends — both the romantics and the romantic burn outs.
Who's in the Which Brings Me To You cast?
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In addition to Lucy Hale and Nat Wolff, Which Brings Me To You stars John Gallagher Jr., Genevieve Angelson, Alexander Hodge, Chase Liefeld, and Ward Horton.
Let us know what you think about Which Brings Me To You in the comments, and check out the rest of our Winter Movies!
Lead image via DECAL Releasing
