Okay, look, I completely understand redoing a story for a newer and younger audience, because let’s face it, a lot of the public doesn’t necessarily enjoy digging through the archives of the past for good movies; they want something fresh and relatable (and I can agree with this sentiment to some degree). However, this revival tactic is a little bit hard, and most of the time, because plots are dated, stories have been told too often, or something’s just no longer in the zeitgeist, no matter how hard you try to make it trendy, it’s not going to work for you. This is exactly how I feel about the 2025 version of You’ve Got Mail, except this time we’re talking car mechanics and texting unknowns instead of bookstores and writing e-mails. Maintenance Required tells the story of Charlie, a young woman who has inherited her dad’s garage and his passion for fixing cars. On the other hand is Beau, a man who works for corporate America because he’s a slave to capitalism.
The first thing that irked me about Maintenance Required is, though it’s deeply inspired by a film made in 1998, it tries to use popular tropes from the 2000s, for what joy, I can’t really tell. Here’s the thing: the quirky hot girl, who’s not like other girls but doesn’t have a pixie cut, is so done and dusted that it’s like girls today need to figure out how to not be girly to be interesting to men, sheesh. I don’t know about you, but between the “pick-mes” (all written by men) and the less hyper-independent, more man-in-woman form, that is really not what we need in our female leads anymore. Is there no in-between? I think Madelaine Petsch is a good actress, and it was definitely hard to break out of the “Riverdale” phase, but she’s been booked and busy. Not only is she in the leading role here, but she’s also a producer on this title, which is all great, but girl, give us something new! I don’t know about you, but having a 2D female lead in a rom-com is nothing like having a 2D male lead in an action franchise, because let’s be real, nobody actually cares (looking at you, John Wick). These double standards are so annoying, but it’s just because people who consume rom-coms are more emotionally intelligent, amirite?
Okay, jokes aside, though, this is both a friends-to-lovers and enemies-to-lovers film at the same time. Yeah, I know, it sounds weird, but that’s what it is. However, even the male lead is unconvincing, and I think the main plot itself is flawed, especially with how the conflict is “fixed” at the end of the film. Unfortunately, this ends up making for quite a boring film, so imagine my surprise when I noticed the You’ve Got Mail reference at the end of it. But the thing that genuinely irks me the most about these tropey movies is that everything always stems from miscommunication, which leads to misunderstandings.
I know, when rom-coms first started doing this, it was genuinely interesting and added a bit of excitement to the otherwise typical plot. But, after so many years, it feels lazy and like an AI reimagining of real misunderstandings, because in the end, it’s resolved in the last 2 minutes of the movie, leaving us with the most bland scrambled eggs for a happy ending. It’s genuinely bewildering. I’m going to go into spoiler territory here, so skip to the next paragraph if you don’t want to know anything at all. It’s baffling how this girl is doing so much in this plot, and the guy is just there, being a guy, not bothered about anything, so much so that even the final arc has to be handled by her. I’m so tired of bad rom-coms, please!
So, like I said earlier, I don’t mind a revival. I mean, Maintenance Required is a remake for the digital age, but is that all you need for success today? I definitely don’t think so. “Oh, look, we’ve got a formula to recreate, so we’ll milk that cow” is not the attitude big media companies should be taking right now. Also, it’s really sad to see Katy O’Brien and Madison Bailey reduced to supporting roles and not have any actual work in this movie. I do appreciate that this girl group is filled with people who are entirely different from each other, though, because that is how actual friendship works.
I suppose at the end of the day, this story needs maintenance, just like the classic cars it takes into account. Just replacing old parts with new ones isn’t all it takes to make something feel brand new. It’s the lack of emotional resonance that truly astonishes me, but I guess that’s what happens when you’re getting 500 movies a day. At the end of the day, no matter how hard you try to like this movie for whatever reason, it’s going to disappoint you. To be honest, I love a rom-com way more than the average person, and I’d still pick Hallmark over this, because at least the main characters have believable backstories.
I really didn’t want to be so negative in this review, because I try to maintain that movies are hard to make and there might be something likable about them underneath all the garbage. However, Maintenance Required tested my patience, and for that reason, I will give it 1.5 out of 5 stars. More so because the cast is fantastic, and I had some expectations seeing these big names on the poster, only to get an inkless photocopy of a very interesting paper.
