Review: Cha Cha Real Smooth

Image courtesy of Apple TV.

 Cooper Raiff's "Cha Cha Real Smooth" might give off the vibe of the type of quirky indie American comedy that you'd see at the Sundance Film Festival - where the film, in fact, sold for a whopping $15 million - but it's a lot more than that as well as a gigantic leap forward for its writer/director/star, whose first feature, "Shithouse," was similarly awkwardly charming, if a little too low-key.

When I reference awkwardness, I'm referring to the type of character that Raiff plays - here, it's the fresh-out-of-college and not-quite-motivated Andrew, whose arrested development is more charming than grating - and in his previous film. In both "Shithouse" and "Cha Cha," the characters he portrays exhibit a mixture of awkward good-naturedness and seeming lack of sophistication in romantic relationships.

As the film opens, we meet young Andrew attending a bar mitzvah with his mother. He notices a much older female party planner as she leads children through a round of the limbo, and sneaks out into the hall to watch her take part in a seemingly fraught phone conversation. 

But back at the bar mitzvah, she jumps back into her role with enthusiasm as if the phone call never took place. Andrew is smitten at her strength and professionalism and the boy - who looks all of 12 years of age - asks her on a date. She kindly explains she's too old for him, and Andrew's protective but bipolar mother (Leslie Mann in a solid supporting performance) tries to provide the broken-hearted boy with some solace.

We jump ahead a decade and Andrew has returned home after graduating Tulane University to stay with his mother; Andrew's young brother, David (Evan Assante), who obviously looks up to Andrew; and Greg (Brad Garrett), the awkward stepfather who means well, but seems to frequently clash with Andrew. Our protagonist is fresh off another heartbreak as his girlfriend has left to study for a semester in Spain and, based on her Facebook profile, is seeing other people. With no other prospects on hand, Andrew takes a job at a fast food joint called Meat Sticks.

His mother tells him that her illness had recently caused her to make a scene at a party, so she asks him to go in her place to a bar mitzvah, where he runs into several old schoolmates and befriends a young mother named Domino (Dakota Johnson in what's likely her best performance) after she takes a shine to his kindness exhibited toward her autistic daughter, Lola (Vanessa Burghardt).

The whole scene clicks with Andrew and he comes up with an idea for a business: party planner for bar mitzvahs. His job is to get children dancing and having fun at the rites of passage, and he is often accompanied by his younger brother, who wants to pick Andrew's brain on how to land his first kiss with a girl he likes, unbeknownst to David that his older brother is fairly awkward when it comes to manners of the heart.

As his friendship with Domino and Lola grows - he offers to babysit her, and these scenes are often charmingly sweet and funny - he begins to develop feelings for the older woman, who has a depressive side that she is unable to hide, and he questions why she is engaged to Joseph (Raul Castillo), a brusk lawyer whose current case frequently takes him to Chicago.

All of this might sound like the makings of a quirky romantic comedy that came from the Sundance factory and is cute enough to make you roll your eyes. In this case, you'd be mistaken. "Cha Cha Real Smooth" is all of those things - funny, charming and displaying a warmth and sweetness that felt like a balm during this particularly downbeat period in current affairs - but it's also deeper and wiser than you'd expect.

For starters, the film is about the unexplainable nature of attraction and how two people click for reasons often unknown to those involved. Domino recognizes that Andrew is young, naive and far behind in life experiences - at age 29, she has an autistic daughter, a husband who left her and she battles depression - and yet, she feels comfortable around him. 

In some ways, the film is a kinder, gentler version of "The Graduate." Andrew in turn starts to fall for Domino, much like he did for the older party planner during the opening scene. He seemingly takes interest in older women who he believes are unappreciated and display an inner strength - and this includes everyone from the party planner and Domino to his mother - or are unnoticed - such as Lola, who is occasionally picked on by boys at the bar mitzvahs due to her being autistic.

Although the film goes in some directions that are inevitable and that you'd expect - for example, Andrew having to face the realization that Domino already has a full life, and that he's still basically a kid - there's a generosity in the picture that extends even to characters that we might initially misjudge. 

The friendship between Andrew and Domino is handled with a surprising delicacy, and both actors are particularly impressive, especially Johnson. "Cha Cha Real Smooth" might have its quirks - Andrew's over-exuberance might initially rub some the wrong way, although we later recognize it's a protective stance - but it's a genuinely kind-hearted, funny and well written and acted film that feels like a hug during a time when most of us could really use one.