Sweethearts kills time on a plane, but it’s no Mad Men

Kiernan Shipka has been an actor I’ve followed and appreciated because … well … she was Don Draper’s little girl in Mad Men and I love everything about Mad Men.

Playing a college freshman in Sweethearts, she continues to have great chops, star-vehicle-ing alongside Nico Hiraga as they spend the 2024 movie Sweethearts going back and forth on whether they are friends or lovers. If the latter, they are going to need to break up with their current partners, one who is the dumbest person every admitted to Harvard and the other a clingy sex kitten.

The film isn’t overly creative and doesn’t always work. The leads are likable enough but I should have known the writing wasn’t that good when one of the opening lines is a deflated joke about Kiernan’s boyfriend’s big veiny dick.

I also don’t really think the side story about their third-leg friend who has moved to Paris to try to find his gay self is necessary at all. Most of that seems like a completely different movie and doesn’t fit well with the main plot.

Sweethearts is a minor movie at best, with a couple of leads who have the potential to be bigger stars. I appreciate when these kinds of indie-feeling, 1980s-like movies are attempted, even when they don’t totally succeed. And it was a decent way to kill 90 minutes on a plane.

3 out of 5 stars