Reese Witherspoon and Ashton Kutcher team up in “Your Place or Mine,” a new Netflix comedy in which two longtime friends swap homes on opposite coasts. Veteran writer Aline Brosh McKenna attempts to put a fresh spin on the romantic comedy with her feature directing debut, but this story struggles to hold up as the film separates its two leads for most of its 109-minute running time.

Debbie (Witherspoon) is a stability-seeking single mother in Los Angeles whose best friend and businessman Peter (Kutcher) lives a noncommittal bachelor’s life in Brooklyn. They decide to trade homes for a week, with Peter taking care of Debbie’s preteen son Jack (Wesley Kimmel) on the West Coast while she takes an accounting course in New York.

The apparent “best friends” talk on the phone throughout the feature, but it takes quite a while for them to share the actual screen in a meaningful way. Whether or not their ultimate reunion is earned will be up to the casual Netflix subscriber who visits this bi-coastal mash-up movie from the menu screen this Valentine’s Day weekend.

It is almost strange to see Witherspoon and Kutcher in this sort of movie, considering today’s cinematic landscape and how both have made names for themselves outside of acting. Witherspoon’s wildly successful Draper James and Hello Sunshine brands, along with her smash-hit internet book club, are beginning to eclipse her award-winning performances in “Walk the Line” and “Wild.” She (sort of) returns  to her light-hearted comedy roots here, though “Legally Blonde” and “Sweet Home Alabama” had genuine substance that made them audience favorites. Kutcher, too, now uses his acting success as a platform for entrepreneurship and nonprofit work. Though both have proven comedic chops and decent chemistry, it’s hard not to see this film simply as a contrived storyline designed for mass appeal. It might have worked in the pre-streaming age, when fans of the actors would buy actual tickets and become fully invested in the characters and their lives. But those days feel very distant, as far away and sadly antiquated as the 2003 flashback scene which begins “Your Place or Mine.”

Similarly to George Clooney and Julia Roberts starring in “Ticket to Paradise” last fall, the valiant attempts to revive the “rom-com” are not quite living up to their promise. Maybe because the “old” form actually created a through-line of romance and comedy, without conflating the two and diminishing the films’ overall value. McKenna’s film takes aim at deeper themes, like longtime friendship, single parenthood and stability versus adventure, but it never makes it believably below the surface. Blended with a promising supporting cast including Jesse Williams, Steve Zahn, Tig Notaro and Zoe Chao, “Your Place or Mine” feels a bit misshapen as Debbie and Peter attempt to bend themselves into opposite lives. The realizations they make about themselves and each other aren’t as profound as they could be. Maybe in the streaming age, profundity and comedy are two separate genres.

Courtesy of Netflix