Logan Lerman Spends His New Movie Naked and Handcuffed to a Bed

PARK CITY, Utah—Oh, Hi! may mark the first time the male lead of a romantic comedy spends two-thirds of his time on screen naked and handcuffed to a bed.

Then again, while Sophie Brooks’ wild ride of a film is technically a romance and—as the chorus of laughter at its Sundance Film Festival premiere attests—is a hilarious comedy, it skirts nearly all conventions fans of the genre might expect from a buzzy new rom-com.

Logan Lerman, who was crowned “The Ultimate Internet Boyfriend” by The Daily Beast’s Obsessed, is the actor mostly seen from his bare chest and up, his private bits covered by a sheet with his limbs in starfish position, shackled to a bed’s four posts. He plays Isaac in Oh, Hi!, an irresistibly charming and even more dashing New Yorker taking Iris (Molly Gordon), the girl he’s dating, to a farmhouse upstate for one of those romantic weekend getaways that make or break fledgling relationships.

They frolic in the creek, cook a nice dinner, dance under the moonlight, and do all the bucolic things that make the most cynical among us roll our eyes—but actually seem incredibly sweet. Things diverge from the Hallmark movie script, however, when Iris discovers a secret closet filled with kinky sex toys, and Isaac suggests they experiment with hooking up while Iris is tied up with the handcuffs they found.

Iris flips it on him, saying he should be the one tied up instead. He’s extremely into the idea, and they have very hot sex. While Isaac is still restrained and recovering, Iris starts gushing about how great their relationship is going, which is news to Isaac, who wasn’t aware they were in a relationship at all and has been sleeping with other women.

While she spirals downstairs, he falls asleep. (He was very drunk.) After consulting the internet on how to keep a guy who is showing signs of leaving a relationship—literally, she googles various versions of this—she comes up what, in her state of delusion, seems like a solid plan: Isaac should stay handcuffed in bed for the rest of the day while she tries to convince him why he should be in a relationship with her.

The various ways Iris tries to execute the plan, and then salvage things when it becomes very clear she’s made a mistake, are a riot, and we don’t want to spoil them. But this Misery-meets-How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days movie has very sharp, very modern things to say about a dating culture in which men following their desires are dismissed as a--holes, women are labeled as desperate or insane, and a world poisoned by the concept of “situationships” muddies what anything thinks actual love could or should look like for them.

In a Q&A after its premiere screening, Lerman, giggling, admitted that the film provided a different challenge than what he’s used to from previous projects. “There were some limits,” he said. “Physical obstacles.”

Gordon, who created the story for Oh, Hi! with Brooks spoke about the film first started to take shape during the pandemic, but Lerman only joined the project in the year before its Sundance premiere. Talking about the unique circumstances of his screen presence, she couldn’t help but laugh, too: “It takes an incredible man to do this role.”