Wish You Were Here (2025) | Film Review

It is late one night in Wish You Were Here when Charlie (Isabelle Fuhrman), a lovelorn waitress whose brother does her dating profile, crosses paths with Adam (Mena Massoud), a rather forgetful app developer and mural artist. They decide to grab a drink, check out Adam’s current graffiti project, and proceed back to his place. It is a textbook beautiful night. They connect, they riff, everything feels as though the stars are aligned. The next morning though, Adam harshly states, “You’re not my girlfriend. You know that, right?” and Charlotte bounces out the door.

Charlie ends up going on another date, where her best friend, Helen (Gabby Kono-Abdy), meets someone special, but Charlie is stuck on this seemingly perfect night with Adam. Despite his horrendous ghosting of Charlie, she eventually learns the truth of why he pushed her away (which I won’t spoil here), and they reconnect. The film then evolves into the question of how much heartbreak is worth the time spent with someone you truly love?

Wish You Were Here is the directorial debut of Julia Stiles, and romantic dramas are certainly in her wheelhouse. Based on the book by Renée Carlino (who co-wrote the script with Stiles), this is a straightforward endeavor that affords Stiles the ability to acclimate to her new position behind the camera. Stiles understands the genre and the importance of character buildup within it, and can easily see her in this new field for years to come.

Chemistry is the number one element for a film like this. When the film is fixated on Charlie and her friends, Isabelle Fuhrman captivates the screen. Fuhrman holds onto the screen ironically in a similar fashion to Stiles in her early career, by always coming across as genuine to the character as written. While Charlie’s choices would not be mine or many of yours, Fuhrman convinces us that she made the right decision for her.

Unfortunately, back to chemistry, when the film turns its focus to Charlie and Adam as a couple, it just does not click in quite the same manner. There is nothing directly to point to, it simply never feels like a tangible relationship that one would risk everything for, nor does it feel as though Adam is ever in this as deeply as Charlie is at any given moment.

Wish You Were Here is an enjoyable watch thanks to Isabelle Fuhrman’s charming performance and is exciting as the first film in the evolution of Julia Stiles in the next stage of her career. Overall, though, the romanticism of the film and chemistry of the leads do not land as strongly as needed to elevate it in this already crowded genre.