***SPOILER***
The 4:30 Movie is a coming-of-age rom-com with a cute couple, a sweet backstory, and the promise of an adorable first date. However, the bulk of the movie—everything leading up to the date—feels disconnected from the romance between Melody (Siena Agudong) and Brian (Austin Zajur). Instead, much of the focus is on Brian’s relationships with his friends Burny (Nicholas Cirillo) and Belly (Reed Northrup), which are fun to a degree, but ultimately fail to add much to the movie.
Throughout the film, Brian repeatedly tells us how he’s thought about Melody all year but lacked the courage to talk to her after they kissed in her pool last summer. Yet we never see the events that led to that moment. Why were they at the pool? What brought them together before the kiss? These gaps leave the romance underdeveloped, missing opportunities to flesh out the connection between Melody and Brian with meaningful, romantic details.
Don’t get me wrong—Zajur and Agudong have solid chemistry in the brief moments they share on screen. But those moments aren’t enough to carry the story, especially when so much of the film feels like a detour from the central romance.
Ultimately, The 4:30 Movie struggles to deliver on its rom-com promise, leaving the audience wanting more from its central relationship.
