I watched this young adult/teen rom-com on Amazon. It’s a very cute story about a nerdy girl named Zoey who inadvertently causes soccer player Zach to suffer a concussion. He gets amnesia and mistakes her for the soccer playing girlfriend he recently started dating, who is also named Zoey.
The Story
The doctor tells Zoey (Josephine Langford) not to stress out Zach (Drew Starkey), so she plans to tell Zach’s parents the truth after they invite her over for dinner. The other Zoey is in Bermuda with her parents and can’t reach Zach because his phone was broken in the bike accident.
But nerdy Zoey gets interested in Zach’s brilliant cousin (Archie Renaux). The parents invite her to go on a ski weekend with all of them, and she goes along in the hopes of attracting the cousin’s attention.
And don’t worry, Zach is not going to ski with his concussion. Anyhow, Zach and Zoey connect while she teaches him to play chess.
After the weekend, through the viral contamination of social media, Zoey’s subterfuge is revealed to the entire college campus. Zoey ends up using her coding skills to stop being a pariah.
There is also a small side story about Zoey’s roommate Elle (Mallori Johnson) who has been encouraging Zoey to pursue the wild fake Zoey scheme. That young lady is a joy to watch. And of course, it is nice watching Andie MacDowell in any film (she plays Zach’s welcoming mom).
The Soccer
However, there is no soccer in this movie, except a few seconds looking at an iphone instagram post. A soccer ball is used in a few scenes as context. You know this was never meant to be a soccer movie because when Zach or soccer Zoey touch the ball, they handle it like a basketball. When real soccer players fiddle with a ball, they always use their feet!
So, I have to lower the rating a tad because of the lack of soccer. I wouldn’t normally review this film because of that absence, but the rom-com is so well done, I wanted to write about it. 🙂
In Conclusion
The Other Zoey is very cute and good for family fare (there is one use of the f-word). It covers the problems caused by social media, and it portrays a female in a positive technologist role. It also shows the importance of friendship between Zoey and her best friend Elle, plus Zoey has a good relationship with her mom (Heather Graham). There is also an implication that the school influencer is in a lesbian relationship, even though the film was made in North Carolina. Mini-progress.
Other reviews called this film charming, comfort food, feel-good, and even heartfelt. You could do a lot worse. But it’s not really a soccer movie.
7 Soccer Movie Mom Rating = 7
Resources:
- Released: 2023-10-20 (Amazon)
- IMDB
- WIKI (a full synopsis!)
- Director: Sara Zandieh
- Stars: Josephine Langford , Drew Starkey
- Watch the Trailer
