So I finally watched She Said Maybe 2025.Girl, I have opinions. This film was framed as this year's movie of the year to feel good about, but let me tell you truthfully? It made me feel. a lot of nothing and a tiny bit hungry for pizza.

Let's get into it.

• Title: She Said Maybe
• Director: Chloe Yan (fresh off that indie doc, so you know they were going for ~authentic~)
• Key Cast: Anya Petrova, Leo "The Heartthrob" Rodriguez, that guy from the phone commercial
• Genre: Romantic Comedy (and I use both terms loosely)
• Runtime: 1h 51m (feels like 3)
• Release Date: September 19. Only on Netflix.
• Rating: PG-13

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The Lowdown

So we're introduced to Zara (Anya Petrova), an uptight event coordinator whose whole being is that she is a color-coded clipboard and that she can't have a good time. No kidding. She books "spontaneous laughter" on a calendar on Google. I am not even kidding.

Then, into her perfectly sterile world crashes Marco (Leo Rodriguez), a free-spirited muralist who literally skateboards into her life, splashing her with latte art. He’s all "live in the moment" and she’s all "you’re a moment I didn't budget for." You can see the gears turning from space.

The central conflict? Zara's largest client, a nightmare bridezilla, insists that Marco—the controversial artist she recently publicly disagreed with—be the "creative consultant" of her wedding. So Zara must work alongside this human golden retriever to create the most epic event of the century without necessarily wanting to strangle him or fall in love. It's a heart-stopping thriller.

The Vibe

Gross. Where do I even begin? The mood is. beige. They've managed to cram a checklist of every rom-com cliche of the past twenty years into a blender and hit puree without adding the mojo. Quirky best friend whose only purpose is to dole out wisdom? Got it. Grand gesture in act three that would be a restraining order in real life? You bet. Watching this was like eating a rice cake. It’s technically food, it fulfills a function, but there’s zero flavor and you’re just left wondering why you bothered. I swear, at one point I paused it to check my fridge. Not because I was hungry, but because I needed a jolt of something real.

There is no sparkle. No sizzle. Everything is so safe and sanitized. So much so that the film is so frightened of getting dirty that it consequently has no soul at all. It's the film equivalent of a "Live, Laugh, Love" sign.

Shout-Out

• Anya Petrova gives it a good try. Good god, give this woman an Oscar statuette for attempting to construct a skyscraper out of soggy spaghetti. She's obviously a gifted performer, and there are perhaps two moments where you glimpse a genuinely multifaceted human being behind the cardboaard-cutout character. She makes a supply closet-induced panic attack believable better than this film warranted.
• Zara's costumes are lowkey on fire. As in, her power suits? Perfect. I would've raided her closet. That's something they did right-you visually see her entire "control freak" vibe through those sharp shoulders and neutral colors. A plus.
• Those opening credits were adorable. No, seriously. They had this neat, hand-drawn animation flair that was new and exciting. It put a spring in my step. It all went downhill from there, but for about 90 seconds, I thought all would be right with the world.

The Niggles

• Zero. Chemistry. None. I've witnessed more pizzazz in a soggy match. Petrova and Rodriguez on-screen as a couple are two cast members that recently crossed paths in the craft services department. Their chemistry is intended to be clever and filled with it, but it has all the impact of a dropped anvil. When they did actually make out, I actually audibly groaned. It was that unconvincing.
• Leo Rodriguez is a magnificent statue. Guy can make a pair of jeans look good, that much I'll give him. But his expression is "slightly smirking" or "mildly concerned." He's playing a character? No, no: he's playing a haircut that just so happens to have a winsome grin. This is a disappointment because a love interest in such things must be interesting. You know?.
• The plot is paint-by-numbers predictable. As soon as Marco skated in, I could've guessed the rest of this movie on a napkin. Third-act misunderstanding? You bet. Last-minute airport chase? They even did that. They even included that. They actually did that. I lost a soul.
• It's tonally confused. Sometimes it's going for zany comedy, and then it's wading its toes into heavy drama about parental pressure. It can't make up its mind about a mood so it just flits around like a screensaver that never settles on anything emotionally meaningful. It's that movie that makes you realize how much you love the sloppy, strange genius of actual good romantic comedies.

My Rating: 4/10

Yeah, no. Can't recommend this. It's a movie shrug.

Only those it would be good for are those that you would want to play in the background as you do laundry. Or maybe your granny if she is not so picky about what she watches. You want a show that has even a hint of realism? Run in the exact opposite direction.

Bless your heart if you:

Have a heart that beats; have romantic leads that have chemistry between them; have had at least a single movie in your existence.

Last word? Save your time. Watch something else. Watch again Crazy, Stupid, Love. Gaze into a wall. The wall will have better textures. This film is a "maybe" that might have been a "definite no."

References

1. She Said Maybe (2025) - IMDb. Retrieved from https://www.imdb.com/title/tttest12345/ 2. She Said Maybe - Rotten Tomatoes. Accessed from https://www.rottentomatoes 3. She Said Maybe (film) - Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki 4. Anya Petrova - Official Site. Retrieved from https://www.anyapetrovak 5. Director Chloe Yan - Filmography. Retrieved from <https://www.chloeyan 6. She Said Maybe (2025) - Letterboxd. Retrieved from https://letterboxd