You Belong With Me [2024]

We've watched a lot of vertical dramas but this one was a triumph for a really unique reason: it had a genuinely likeable main character. This probably shouldn't be a triumph, but in general vertical dramas really rely on creating female main characters who are meant to be one-dimensional figures of pathos. They are so comically mistreated that you are supposed to feel bad for them, but they are so willing to just lay down and let life happen to them that you get quickly annoyed. This main character certainly has bad things happen to her, but she doesn't just lay down. She snaps back, she gets revenge, and she is confident in her ability to run her own life. The actress who plays her actually played her like a person. While it made the movie less bad, it made it far more enjoyable. 

The plot of the film is pretty conventional for a vertical drama all things considered. Kristine Wilson, the main character, decides to sleep with her fiancée Eric Lockwood's uncle who's the same age as him, Henry Lockwood. This is revenge for Eric sleeping with her adopted sister Giana. The even more complicated part is that Eric is her boss and Henry is his boss. Kristine doesn't try to hide what she's doing and asks Eric to please just break off the engagement for both their sakes but he refuses, using her family needing his as the reason. She decides to tell Henry about all the embezzling Eric has done and gets his job. Kristine and Henry continue to see each other casually, but they are functionally together even if they don't fully declare it until the end. The only real complications are Henry's fiancee, Nicole, who isn't really into this engagement anyway and takes the break up completely fine, and Henry's father who has seemingly arranged all these marriages and wants them to go according to plan. There's another plot going on about the search for the rich Roberts family's long lost sister and after some DNA tests it is revealed that Giana, not Kristine, is the actual Wilson sister. Kristine has a bit of an identity crisis, but she accepts that she can only really rely on herself. The Lockwood patriarch doesn't like Kristine at this point and wants her gone so she throws a Hail Mary and claims to be the long lost Roberts sister. She met the Roberts brother at an auction and he's totally cool to help her out, but they are both surprised to find that she actually is his sister. In the end, Kristine and Henry get engaged.

As I mentioned, Kristine is actually a really well-developed and likable character played by an actress who really is doing a good job. This is contrasted heavily with the unavoidable vertical drama bad movie qualities: the silly cookie cutter plot, the melodramatic acting from other people, and the low production quality. One thing that makes this movie really stick out is actually the bad music and sound effects, which often add comedy to scenes that are really not meant to be funny, including a sexual assault scene. 

Spoon Rating: 6*

*This one was kind of hard to rate because it definitely has the trappings of a bad movie, but because of the strength of the main character, it's also enjoyable in a non-bad movie way and we got some laughs that we actually intended by the film. Therefore the Spoon Rating isn't super high, but it is a high recommend, especially if you've seen other vertical dramas.