Demented R-Rated Comedy Of Errors Is The Worst Trip Ever

By Robert Scucci
| Published 12 seconds ago

Growing up watching way more Frasier than any child should consume, I’ve always been a proponent of the comedy of errors. There’s something inherently funny about watching situations go completely off the rails thanks to egregious miscommunication, especially in Frasier’s case, where every principal character should be great at choosing their words carefully but fails miserably every time thanks to their own misguided instincts. 2024’s I Don’t Understand You carries that exact kind of energy as our heroes (if you could call them that) learn how quickly a simple language barrier can turn into a bloodbath during their Italian-bound babymoon.

Every conflict in this movie can be traced back to the title as hilarity erupts from a single refrain: “I don’t understand you.” A comedy of errors of the highest order, I Don’t Understand You escalates until you can barely handle the tension, but it keeps you smiling as each scene becomes more anxiety-inducing than the one before.

Two Guys, A Girl, And A Pizza Date

I Don’t Understand You begins as a sweet story about Dom (Nick Kroll) and Cole (Andrew Rannells), a disgustingly wholesome, picture-perfect couple who finally have a shot at adopting a child after years of setbacks. Their original plan to celebrate their 10th anniversary in Italy quickly morphs into a babymoon when Candice (Amanda Seyfried), a young woman planning to put her baby up for adoption, chooses them to become the child’s legal guardians. Excited beyond belief, Dom and Cole head to Italy and meet up with Dom’s father, Daniele (Paolo Romano), who surprises them with a private dinner in rural Orvieto hosted by world-renowned, retired restaurateur Zia Luciana (Nunzia Schiano).

Zia is warm and welcoming but doesn’t speak a lick of English. Dom and Cole, despite trying to cram functional Italian through Duolingo on the flight over, immediately realize the language barrier will create more trouble than expected. Zia is an eccentric old woman whose husband is hooked up to an iron lung in her house. When the power goes out, she understandably panics, resulting in a nasty fall down the stairs that kills her on the spot.

Panic-stricken, Dom and Cole try to resuscitate her, unaware that her son, Massimo (Morgan Spector), is about to drop in for a surprise visit. They hide the body as best they can, only to learn that Massimo, who doesn’t know his mother is dead, wants to continue the celebratory dinner with his new friends. As expected, things get much worse, since Massimo is just as animated and eccentric as his mother and completely oblivious to the horror unfolding around him.

A Premise Sold By Its Inherent Ridiculousness

I Don’t Understand You works so well because every escalating incident could have been avoided if Dom and Cole, or their overeager hosts, took a couple deep breaths and tried to pantomime their way out of the situation. But this is horror comedy territory, so no such wholesome solution is allowed. As the night spirals, Dom and Cole bicker like any long-term couple, somehow keeping things light in a way that feels ripped from an episode of Frasier.

It’s impossible not to think of the Season 6 episode “The Seal Who Came To Dinner,” when Frasier and Niles accidentally implicate themselves in a murder after trying to sink a dead seal into the ocean by stabbing it repeatedly and weighing it down with Maris’ garments. The situation is awful, and it doesn’t even need the provided laugh track because the absurdity does all the work. I Don’t Understand You thrives on the same wavelength, transforming what was meant to be a warm, intimate dinner into a complete catastrophe.

A brilliant comedy of errors in its own right, I Don’t Understand You lays its stakes out immediately, and half the fun comes from wondering whether Dom and Cole will ever be able to talk their way out of their “simple misunderstanding” once the body count starts climbing. Each scene reveals how far they’ve fallen from their original wholesome intentions. By the end, it becomes clear they’re not the heroes of this story. Their attempts to save face twist them into cold, self-interested antagonists who only care about preserving their image.

I Don’t Understand You is streaming on Hulu.