Spin Me Round Review

Romance in Italy should not be as groan-inducing as Spin Me Round makes it, but that is the effect of director Jeff Baena. This Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza-starring piece does well to maintain the talents of the leading pair but does little to confirm Baena has moved on any further after his dark spectacle Joshy or the unwavering dullness of Horse Girl. Baena at the very least is consistent in his mediocrity, but he has no right to be. Spin Me Round should be the push for that next step as an artist, and it starts off well enough with shots of pasta being made while the opening credits roll. Willy Wonka-like until some smooth, Mark Knopfler-like jazz tonal kicks into effect, which marks the mundanity of Italian restaurant chain management nicely.

Baena at least relies on the charms of his stacked cast. Brie makes for a great lead here, natural in her ability to produce a generally mundane person thrown into the adventures of a surprising lifetime. Familiar faces crop up here or there for a number of large and small roles, it is difficult to measure everyone up at times. With Tim Heidecker and Molly Shannon making the rounds, Spin Me Round does indeed manage to spin its audience around with a cavalcade of familiar faces being vaguely funny. Debby Ryan makes for a surprise appearance, still pushing through as a quality talent after all those years of Suite Life on Deck. Plaza plays a solid role as the sister of Nick (Alessandro Nivola), and from, there this surprisingly superb ensemble is complete.

Their experience together is one that shows an intimacy of the ensemble, and layered effectiveness pulls Baena into a piece that may actually work somewhere down the line. His inconsistencies earlier in his career seem to persevere here but with a charm that applies itself to the surroundings found in Spin Me Round. Great chemistry between Plaza and Brie marks a change of pace that turns the romantic sentimentalities on their head, and soon a very wobbly mystery begins. Brie and the rest of the cast handle these ups and downs relatively well, although the inevitabilities of the comedy-drama blend mean the mystery must be something that a punchline can be rattled out of. A blink-and-miss moment for Fred Armisen though marks a lacking effect of the big name comedian coming in to throw his name and worth onto a project that needs name value.

A shame too, as the narrative could have done with a bit of heavier lifting. Spin Me Round does certainly spin itself round, losing itself in a fit of confusion in the final third as Baena ramps up to something he cannot quite pull off. Still, the effort is there and it gets darker than expected. Unravelling far too quickly and far too simply, Spin Me Round forgets to add key pieces where detail should lie, and soon loses itself to its own attempts at marking a murder mystery. Credit where it is due, the performances are, on the whole, rather strong, but Baena fumbles a slow burn and cannot prevent himself from giving away too much, too quickly. From there, reliance on big, showy and strange scenarios breaks through and breaks down the narrative along with it.