Stream It or Skip It?

Summer may be over, but Netflix’s new film, She Said Maybe, looks to bring the heat as it sweeps you away on a global adventure. The German-Turkish romantic comedy stars Beritan Balcı as a German-born and raised architect who suddenly discovers that she comes from a wealthy and powerful family in Turkey. What ensues is a series of mishaps, class and identity issues, and family drama that pull you in and keep you engaged (pun not intended) for the full film. Here’s everything you need to know about the Netflix Original international title, She Said Maybe.

The Gist: On a romantic getaway for Hamburg, Germany-based couple Mavi (Beritan Balcı) and Can’s (Sinan Güleç) two-year anniversary, Can plans to pop the question to Mavi on a zipline platform while capturing the entire thing in a video call with both of their families. Unfortunately, things don’t go as planned for Can, as Mavi trips and ends up going backwards down the zipline before he can finish his proposal, leaving him to put a pin in his plan for now. Instead, he pivots to taking Mavi on a 10-day trip to Istanbul, where he’ll find a picturesque spot to pop the question. While Mavi’s mom, Aynur (Ilknur Boyraz), seems to want her daughter to visit anywhere but Istanbul, Mavi is adamant on going, especially since her mother and late father are both from Turkey.

However, Aynur’s reluctance soon blooms into a full-blown panic when she sees an article in a renowned architecture magazine celebrating Mavi’s recent Newcomer design award for a project she’d dedicated to her parents. Unable to stop Mavi from leaving or explain why this very public article could be a problem, Aynur must deal with the consequences of her decision to hide that Mavi does not, in fact, have any other living relatives, despite what she’d led her to believe. When Mavi’s paternal grandmother, Yadigar Bilgin (Meral Perin), reads the architecture article and learns of Mavi’s existence, she pulls out all the stops to not only meet her granddaughter in Turkey but also bring her into the family business and the upper echelons of Turkish society.

Immediately upon landing in Istanbul, Mavi’s life becomes a whirlwind as she learns that she not only has living relatives, but also that her father was to be the next heir of a rich and powerful family regarded as one of the top entities in Turkish aristocracy. Yadigar will stop at nothing to make Mavi her family business’s next heir, even if it means getting rid of the “unsuitable” Can and ticking off Yadigar’s other potential successor, Mavi’s ambitious and condescending second cousin Gúney (Kerem Can), in the process.

Even with the help of her flashy second cousins Edo (Mehmet Ateşçi) and Leyla (Cansu Tosun), as well as the support of her mom and best friend from home, Nora (Caroline Daur), Mavi is struggling under the weight of pressures, expectations, and relationships as she’s torn between two worlds. On top of Mavi’s identity crisis, Can faces his own struggles as Yadigar attempts to make him feel like an outsider while simultaneously pushing the affluent Turkish bachelor Kent Wolff (Serkan Çayoglu) towards Mavi as his replacement. With all of this chaos and confusion, which paths of life and love will Mavi say “yes” to?

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: She Said Maybe is kind of like if you combined the “realizing that your significant other comes from a whole other and potentially inaccessible world” aspect of Crazy Rich Asians with the “identity crisis” and “I’m the heir of a very important grandmother so my life is henceforth forever changed” aspects of The Princess Diaries.

Performance Worth Watching: While everyone in the film does a wonderful job, Mehmet Ateşçi and Cansu Tosun especially shine as the privileged yet welcoming cousins Edo and Leyla, respectively. They’re both very entertaining and charismatic, and their comic relief moments also serve as a nice balance to the more grounded (though just as noteworthy) performances of our leads, Beritan Balcı and Sinan Güleças, as Mavi and Can.

Memorable Dialogue: Even when they’re being out-of-touch or mildly insulting, Edo and Leyla sure are entertaining:

“You should get used to it, babe. Mavi, you’re big news here! You’re a Prince Harry!”

“And Can is Meghan!”

“If Meghan had a way worse sense of basic style, babes. Sorry!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: From the gorgeous shots of landscapes across Germany and Turkey (seriously, this made me want to visit Istanbul; it looks gorgeous) to the well-acted, tight storyline, She Said Maybe is a rom-com that entertains and engages its viewers. Beritan Balcı and Sinan Güleç do a great job leading this film, with palpable chemistry and committed acting that make you believe in their mutual affection and root for their happy ending. Their characters are imperfect and conflicted, especially as they’re faced with more and more challenges, but that made them feel all the more human. In fact, every character is sympathetic in some way (except for Gúney, he’s just a weirdo and a jerk), with even Yadigar being more nuanced than the evil, conniving monster-in-law/puppeteer she initially seems to be.

She Said Maybe certainly has its silly and funny moments, usually spear-headed by the antics of Edo and Leyla, but at its core, it’s an intriguing investigation of family and identity. Is your family the people you have blood ties to, or can true family also be found and chosen? Are you who you were born and expected to be, or how you were raised to naturally become? Mavi grapples with all of these issues as she’s torn between everything she has known in Hamburg and the tantalizing promise of the big family she’s always yearned for in Istanbul. At the same time, Can has his own struggles with class and social status that make him question his relationship, choices, and self-worth. Overall, the end result is a fun rom-com with a bit of added depth that makes for an ultimately pleasant and positive streaming experience.

Our Call: If you’re hungry for a solid foreign-language film or rom-com title, then the sweet and satisfying German-Turkish delight that is She Said Maybe should satisfy your craving. STREAM IT!