Co-writing/directing team Linsey Stewart and Dane Clark have quite the sitcom premise on their hands with Suze, but yet, thanks to an inherent understanding of their characters, the film overcomes any outlandishness to prove itself a sweet relationship dramedy about flawed, real humans who just want to be loved – whatever form that arrives in.
When we meet the titular Suze – full name Susan (so wonderfully embodied by Michaela Watkins) – she’s at the tail-end of the eventual first day of the rest of her life, as she comes home to find her husband (Sandy Jobin-Bevans) having relations with another woman in their backyard pool; she even comments later on that the sting hurt that much more due to the other woman not even being significantly younger. The two divorce, naturally, and Susan then has to navigate her life as a single mother to their daughter.
Cut to five years later and said daughter, Brooke (Sara Wainglass), is on the cusp of graduating high school and, unbeknownst to the doting Susan, off to study at a university in Montreal. The distance between Susan and Brooke is either too far or not far enough (depending on whose view you take), but however it’s looked upon, Susan is very much alone for the first time in her life. Or so she assumes.
Leaning into its sitcom-ish premise, Brooke’s slightly older boyfriend Gage (Charlie Gillespie, who is essentially the human equivalent of an excitable, doting puppy dog), who has yet to graduate high school, ends up moving in with Susan through unforeseen, and, quite admittedly, devastating circumstances. Due to the fact that we are seeing Gage through Susan’s perspective initially, he’s little more than a joke of a character. He’s well intentioned, but he’s seen as having no real prospective future, and Susan would be more than happy for Brooke to break up with him. He’s bombastically in love with Brooke, but she follows her mother’s advice and dumps him ahead of her college travels, leaving the poor lad emotionally (and psychologically) wounded.
Just why they end up living together comes off the back of Gage’s father (Aaron Ashmore) not really wanting to deal with the reality that his son could hurt himself further if he’s left alone, and given that Susan – who Gage lovingly refers to as Suze, despite her repeated attempts to tell him to stop doing so – is an empty nester, she begrudgingly agrees because, as much as she doesn’t particularly like him, she knows he deserves some care under the circumstances. Whilst an “odd couple” dynamic is what Stewart and Clark set up, Suze is so much more than such a gimmick, with their surface level differences breaking down for the two to uncover how similar they truly are.
The film finds the complexity in its simplistic premise, and it’s because Susan and Gage, as people, aren’t treated as jokes that we, as an audience, find our way in. It’s also to everyone’s benefit that Watkins is leading the charge as the film’s emotional core. So often a support player in filmic fare (across her career she’s provided ample comedic sustenance in such titles as The Back-up Plan, Enough Said, Brittany Runs a Marathon, and You Hurt My Feelings), it’s such a treat to see her front and centre here, owning every comedic and emotional beat with sincerity. And Gillespie, for his part, keeps up with her at every turn, transforming what could’ve been a caricature into someone rich with affective depth.
Knowing its characters are the most important aspect of its telling, Suze proves sweet without succumbing to a saccharine state, universal, and deeply funny.
FOUR STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
Suze is playing theatrically exclusively at the Laemmle Glendale in the United States and available on VOD from February 7th, 2025.
