Continuing a genre-hopping post-Harry Potter career that has included horror movies, biopics, and musical theater, Daniel Radcliffe’s next project is a romantic comedy. The new trailer for What If features Radcliffe as Adam Driver’s lovelorn cousin Wallace who becomes “just friends” with Zoe Kazan’s Chantry. And like any good Manic Pixie Dream Girl, her odd name is just the tip of her quirk-filled iceberg.
Like a modern-day When Harry Met Sally, What If centers around the question: Can men and women just be friends? Along the way to answering that with a resounding “NO!” this film seems determined to hit every single romantic comedy cliché in the book. In this trailer alone there’s a jerky boyfriend, meaningful running (presumably ahead of a last-minute love confession), goofy best friends, bitchy saleswomen, cynical philosophies, and absurd physical comedy. All those clichés (and many more) can be seen when the film hits theaters in August.