Review: 'Oh, Hi!,' the most nerve-wracking date night movie ever, is a showcase for the crazy-good comic talents of Molly Gordon

From the premise — a couple dating for four months takes their first weekend road trip together — a viewer might think they know where writer-director Sophie Brooks’ romantic comedy “Oh, Hi!” Is going to go.

They would be disastrously, hilariously wrong, because Brooks and star Molly Gordon (who shares story credit with Brooks) go into some strange and dark places in this examination of miscommunication and mixed expectations.

When we first see Gordon’s Iris, she’s greeting her best friend, Max (Geraldine Viswanathan), who has arrived in a panic and very concerned for her friend. She should be, because Iris opens with “I did something bad.” Then Brooks cuts to 33 hours earlier in the narrative, as Iris and Isaac (Logan Lerman) are driving in the countryside in upstate New York, heading to a farmhouse they’ve rented for the weekend.

Iris and Isaac seem like a very typically gaga-for-each-other couple. They have sex on the couch when they first arrive. They make out in the creek behind the house, drawing the wrath of a creepy neighbor (David Cross). Isaac cooks her scallops. And, later, Isaac suggests they uses some of the leather and chain goods they found in their landlord’s closet for some light S&M.

What happens next — and how Iris draws Max and Max’s boyfriend, Kenny (John Reynolds), into her “something bad” — make up the last hour of this funny and off-kilter comedy. And I am loathe to give away anything more.

Iris’ behavior will, I’m sure, divide audiences, in part along gender lines. Women will likely empathize with Iris’ heartache, and may even consider her drastic actions justified. Men could go either way here, either dismissing Iris as a nut case, or reluctantly conceding that Iris has a point — even if she has gone to extremes to make that point.

What’s not up for argument is that Gordon is one of the funniest people working in movies, woman or man. Gordon has shined in supporting turns in “Shiva Baby,” “Booksmart” and “Theater Camp.” Here, she invests Iris with a boatload of modern anxieties, and adds a bracing dose of righteous anger when her perfect weekend goes off the rails. Scoring her first significant leading role, Gordon makes “Oh, Hi!” a wonderfully off-the-wall declaration of empowerment — one that will make people laugh and then reconsider how they’ve been treating their significant other.

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‘Oh, Hi!’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, July 25, in theaters. Rated R for sexual content/some nudity, and language. Running time: 95 minutes.