Can You Keep a Secret?

Directed by Elise Durán, Can You Keep a Secret? follows an awkward professional (Alexandra Daddario’s Emma Corrigan) as she winds up spilling all her secrets to a stranger (Tyler Hoechlin’s Jack Harper) during a turbulent flight – with complications ensuing after Emma learns that Jack owns the company for which she works. It’s a reasonable-enough, romcom-friendly premise that’s employed to pervasively underwhelming effect by Durán, as the filmmaker, armed with Peter Hutchings’ screenplay, has infused the proceedings with a pervasively (and disastrously) low-rent vibe that’s reflected in its various attributes – with the shot-on-the-cheap visuals and laughably lackluster production design certainly ranking high on the movie’s list of inept elements. (Even the animated opening credits suffer from a chintzy, cheap-looking feel that immediately establishes an air of total shoddiness.) It’s a shame, ultimately, given that Durán has elicited charming performances from her two leads, with the impact of Daddario and Hoechlin’s affable efforts heightened by their palpable chemistry together, and there’s little doubt, as well, that the narrative’s various beats, as well-worn and hackneyed as they are, could (and should) have resulted in a fun little romance – with the end result a missed opportunity that remains persistently pitched at a level of sub-sitcom competence.

*1/2 out of ****