Palm Springs’ charming lead pair delivers a charming rom-com with a neat little time-travel twist.

Palm Springs features two of my favorite characters from two of my favorite sitcoms playing the lead characters in a Groundhog Day-ish romcom. While my recent Brooklyn Nine-Nine binge introduced me to Andy Samberg’s brand of goofy humor, I’d been a fan of Cristin Miloti since her endearing portrayal of the eponymous Mother in How I Met Your Mother. I also found her featured episode to be the best in Amazon Prime’s anthology, Modern Love.

Palm Springs gets itself off to a great start. It follows the nihilistic Nyles (Andy Samberg), who is trapped in an infinite time loop on the day of his girlfriend’s best friend’s wedding. He’s lived the day so many times that he anticipates everyone’s dance moves and even knows exactly when his girlfriend would cheat on him. He has an instant connection with the bride’s sister Sarah (Cristin Milioti), but the pair is interrupted by Roy (J.K. Simmons), who shoots(!) Nyles with an arrow. Sarah then follows JakeNyles into a mysterious cave, where she finds herself inadvertently sucked into the time loop. I wonder when was the last time we saw a cave being used for time-travel?

The day starts over, this time for Sarah as well. Being together in an infinite one-day loop is a great recipe for them to inevitably develop feelings for each other, and it makes for some great character moments between the pair. With Nyles having resigned himself to this infinite time loop so wholeheartedly that he can’t even remember his old job, it comes down to Sarah to figure a way to break the loop.

The lead pair is charming, while JK Simmons impresses in a small but significant role. The support cast also chips in with some fun performances. There are some nice funny moments ‘littered’ throughout the movie, including one hilarious moment on watering dog poop. It also works to the movie’s benefit that the runtime is just under 90 minutes, which makes Palm Springs a breezy watch.