4/12 ForReel Score | 1.5/5 Stars

Dating is difficult - there's no two ways about it. Until you meet your person, dating is a slog, and that can be quite the challenge to face. Sometimes you try all of the apps and never make a connection, and then you meet someone you vibe with over a food delivery; such is the case for the fateful couple in The Elephant In The Room. Leah (Alyssa Limperis) has ordered dinner on Christmas in the thick of the lockdown, and Vincent (Sean Kleier) was the one to deliver it. They have a cute moment of awkward flirting, and soon after the encounter begin to text when she realizes how good the food - which he also made - is. Eventually, they meet for coffee and things are going well right up until Leah (a loud and proud progressive) learns that Vincent is a two-time Trump voter.

The rest of the film is these two, who are obviously attracted to one another and share great chemistry, trying to decide if they can be together. Unfortunately, the issue is that the film doesn't really have an answer.

Part of this is by design; without going into detail, the film ends in a way that lets the viewer decide whether things between Leah and Vincent will work out, or what “working out” even means for them, but there are problems in the journey to get there. Writer and director Erik Bork has created something clearly well-intentioned, but it does not commit enough to have a meaningful impact.

The film is set around the holidays in 2020. People are wearing masks outside and the nation has just elected Joe Biden. Vincent is obviously unhappy about this, but he is of course not a hard code right wing zealot. He lives with his Fox News-watching grandmother - the likely source of many of his political values - and he lives to take care of her and make her happy. This background offers Vincent ample space and opportunity to grow and develop as a character, but he just kinda...doesn't, really.

Leah is, however, dedicated to the idea of turning Vincent to the light, and while she sometimes comes off as infuriating, it's mostly good-hearted and evenly presented. She almost never follows up, though, so when Vincent says that he voted because his guy wants to stick up for the working man, he's also never meaningfully asked to own all of the racism, homophobia, and violence he also voted for. There's a noble idea here: to get the audience talking, but the film ends up being the kind of milquetoast self-serious-despite-light-hearted exploration that doesn't actually explore that much, even once January 6th, 2021 rolls around in the story.

Neither have any meaningful character development, in fact, and while my own personal bias would have appreciated watching the Trump-voter fully own the err of his choices (I am Canadian for the record, and entirely unamused by the idea of Canada becoming a 51st state) it’s clear that the decision to remain neutral in the narrative’s political stance finds both Leah and Vincent the same at the end of the story as they are at the beginning. The ultimate muddying of an open ended resolution is leaving the conflict in the same circumstances it began with.

The frustrating thing is that Limperis and Kleier are, again, really good on-screen together. Their chemistry is palpable, and they get into a great rhythm as the story goes on. Limperis also has great scenes with Dominic Burgess, who plays her roommate Martin, an awkward gay man and remote worker who warms to her as the story progresses and she shows real interest in being a better friend to him.

The film then never even attempts to reconcile Vincent's voting history with the erasure or protections for 2SIALGBTQ+ people that the man he voted for has enacted. The title may be a clever play on a common idiom and the symbol of Leah’s Democrat-oriented political preference, but The Elephant in the Room is also a pointed title in a less flattering way that anyone in tune with politics can understand: it purports to address the issues openly, but only pays them lip service, if at all.

Movie Review: Politics and Dating Are A Messy Mix of Heart and Hesitation For Indecisive "The Elephant In The Room"