When We First Met

Noah Ashby falls in love with Avery Martin after meeting her at a 2014 Halloween party, but Avery comes to regard him as a friend. Three years later, Noah remains distraught at being unable to win over Avery, who met her fiancé Ethan the next day. When he becomes intoxicated at Ethan and Avery's engagement party, Noah winds up in the photo booth he used with Avery during their first meeting and drunkenly operates it before falling asleep. Awakening in his bed, Noah discovers that the photo booth brought him back to the day he met Avery and he resolves to change the events of the day to ensure he and Avery end up together.

Noah uses his pre-existing knowledge of Avery to his advantage in his first attempt to win her over, but Avery and her roommate Carrie Grey suspect him of being a stalker, and he returns to 2017 now ostracized from Avery. For his second attempt, Noah follows his friend Max's advice of being a rude alpha male and successfully beds Avery, but he develops a self-absorbed personality in the present and his relationship with Avery is purely sexual. Recognizing that Avery and Ethan are still attracted to each other, a conversation with Carrie helps Noah deduce that Avery is attracted to stable and dependable men. Noah gets a job at Max's company and presents himself in a more mature manner to Avery for his third attempt, which results in him successfully becoming engaged to her. However, his friendship with Max has ended due to taking the vice president position that Max was working to obtain, his job commitments prevent him from spending time with Avery, and Ethan is now distraught over Avery being unable to return his love for her. Following another conversation with Carrie, Noah recognizes that Avery does not love him and she is meant to be with Ethan. He also realizes that having bonded with Carrie through their personal conversations, he is meant to be with her.

Traveling back to 2014 for a fourth time, Noah arranges for Avery and Ethan to meet at the Halloween party while he pursues Carrie, whom he discovers he has more in common with than Avery. His actions restore Ethan and Avery's engagement and his friendship with Max, but Noah learns that he did not win Carrie's love and instead caused her to resume dating her ex-boyfriend Phil. Noah finally realizes that he needed to first become friends with Avery in order to meet Carrie and he travels back one last time to meet Avery as he did originally. With the present fully restored, Noah initiates a conversation with Carrie at the engagement party and the two begin their own relationship.

• Adam DeVine as Noah Ashby[3]
• Alexandra Daddario as Avery Martin[3]
• Shelley Hennig as Carrie Grey[4]
• King Bach as Max[2]
• Robbie Amell as Ethan[5]
• Dean J. West as Josh
• Tony Cavalero as the Angus Young partygoer
• Chris Wylde as Mr. Costigan
• Noureen DeWulf as Margo

In May 2016, Ari Sandel was set to direct the film from a script by John Whittington and Adam DeVine, while producers on the film are Adam Saunders of Footprint Features, Mason Novick of MXN Entertainment, with Mary Viola and McG of Wonderland Sound and Vision.[3]

Principal photography on the film began in mid-July 2016 in New Orleans.[5][6]

On the review-aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 43% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 4.96/10. The critical consensus reads: "Much like its protagonist, When We First Met struggles in the cinematic 'friend zone' -- and will face a slew of viewer breakups before finding much in the way of true love."[7] On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 36 out of 100, based on six critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[8]

Decider writer Lea Palmeri said, “DeVine’s ability to be charming and endearing shouldn’t be underestimated here and you’ll be rooting for him before you know it.”[9] Ravi Teja of Age of the Nerd stated that he “carries the whole movie on his shoulders with perfection.”[10]

• When We First Met at IMDb