Charlie Harper Review: Brooding Romantic Drama Is A Charmless Slog

Unable to overcome a false, awkwardly structured script, Charlie Harper doesn't manage to sell the idea that this couple should ever be together.

Published Sep 24, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT

Alex is the Senior Editor of Reviews & Prestige Content, overseeing ScreenRant's film reviews as one of its Rotten Tomatoes-approved critics. After graduating from Brown University with a B.A. in English, he spent a locked-down year in Scotland completing a Master's in Film Studies from the University of Edinburgh, which he hears is a nice, lively city. He now lives in and works from Milan, Italy, conveniently a short train ride from the Venice Film Festival, which he first covered for SR in 2024.

In the wide world of romance movies, I tend to gravitate toward stories with a more dramatic edge, even (especially?) in comedies. The real magic of them is in the energy that forms between two people, whether it ends up pulling them together or pushing them apart. Films that are entirely light and bubbly often don't have the patience to sit in a scene and let you feel the weight, or the crackle, of that invisible force. So, I should be in the bag for something like Charlie Harper, Mac Eldridge and Tom Dean's new movie about a couple trying to understand what their love meant after their relationship burned bright, soured, and dissolved without the feeling ever really having gone away.

There are, unfortunately, two things that proved insurmountable in my effort to enjoy it. The first is the script, which so baldly aspires to profundity. A fractured structure in which times in the central relationship are visited out of order is paired with both characters describing their relationship in retrospect to someone else, and the combination of the way we're shown these events and the way they talk about them makes the whole thing pretty insufferable. These are two people plagued with main character syndrome in a movie perfectly content to indulge them.

The second, perhaps a natural result of the first, is that I didn't ever buy into these two as a couple. The particular joy of a doomed romance is the inner conflict of knowing these two people aren't good for each other, but wanting to see them together anyway. I can't imagine wanting these two to work things out. Charlie Harper is a much more interesting movie whenever the protagonists are off on their own – which, given the conceit, isn't very often. The rest is a slog to sit through.

Charlie Harper Drains Its Stars Of Their Charisma, And The Love Story Sinks

As we gradually see over the course of the non-linear story, Charlie (Nick Robinson) and Harper (Emilia Jones) cross paths a few different times in their young lives. They meet in high school, when Charlie, a year older, TAs one of Harper's classes, but things don't start in earnest for them until after Harper's graduation. A romantic night out turns into a passionate summer. When Charlie follows Harper to New Orleans, that summer turns into building a life together. And, well after their years-long relationship has run its course, a run-in turns into a maybe-one-night-stand that resurfaces some complicated feelings.

It's obvious from the beginning that these two people shouldn't be together...

Charlie Harper presents these two as deeply in love, or at least tries to. But they, meaning both characters and actors, are an odd mix. Robinson and Jones are good performers, but they are ill-suited to the dour tone of this material, which requires them to spend most of their time living in or reflecting on their growing misery. These roles drain them of the charisma they've displayed in other projects, even just this year. The dialogue some scenes require them to deliver sounds completely false coming out of their mouths.

Crucially, their "happy" time together being uncompelling leaves the film completely imbalanced, as the issues in Harper and Charlie's relationship are glaring. Though neither has chosen to go to college after high school, Harper dreams of being a chef, and learns the hard way what it means to be a devoted professional as she tries to break into the New Orleans restaurant scene. Charlie, a clearly intelligent auto-didact, has some unresolved issues that manifest as a conscious lack of drive and an overreliance on alcohol. It's obvious from the beginning that these two people shouldn't be together, and without a real investment in their love story, the movie is mostly waiting to see how much punishment they can take before they catch on.

Charlie Harper does sometimes show glimpses of what could have been a more successful approach to telling this story. When Harper is taking her lumps from her professional kitchen's driven chef (Jonathan Gregg), or Charlie is being seen right through by his empathetic boss (Gralen Bryant Banks), they show signs of life as characters. They are able to breathe outside the confines of their shared history together. A more contained movie that focused on that, and their gradual realization of what it meant, may have communicated the themes more effectively.

As it stands, these moments are not nearly enough to rescue the viewing experience. That Charlie Harper ends pretty much exactly as you'd expect is only the final nail in an already sealed coffin.

Charlie Harper releases in theaters on Friday, September 25.