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Maintenance Required: A Rom-Com That Needs More Than an Oil Change
- Sakshi D
- 8 hours ago
- 4 min read
I sat through Maintenance Required on Amazon Prime, hoping for a cute rom-com to balance out all the heavy stuff I usually watch. What I got was a forgettable mess that couldn’t decide what it wanted to be.
This movie has all the ingredients for something charming—enemies to lovers, workplace rivalry, hidden online connection—but somehow manages to make the whole thing feel lifeless and generic as hell.
TMJ Rating: 🍿🍿/5
What’s This Car Crash About?
Madelaine Petsch plays Charlie, who runs a small independent garage called O’Malley’s.
Jacob Scipio is Belo, who works for the corporate chain that just opened across the street and is threatening Charlie’s business. They hate each other in person but don’t realize they’ve been chatting online as car enthusiasts.
It sounds familiar because this is basically You’ve Got Mail but with cars and way less charm. The whole movie telegraphs every plot beat from miles away, which would be fine if the execution was good.
Spoiler alert: it’s not.
Charlie’s trying to keep her garage afloat while dealing with her absent father’s legacy and navigating this rivalry with Belo. Meanwhile, they’re falling for each other online without knowing who the other person is.
You can predict every single thing that happens next.
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The Tomboy Thing Didn’t Work
Here’s my biggest issue with this movie: Charlie’s whole tomboy mechanic persona felt forced as hell.
I’m all for women in traditionally male-dominated fields, but the way they wrote this character didn’t stick with me at all.
The script tries so hard to make her this tough, car-obsessed woman who can hang with the guys, but it comes across as someone playing a role rather than being a real person.
Better writing could have made this character feel authentic, but what we got was a shallow sketch of what the writers thought a female mechanic should be like.
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It could’ve been so much better thought out. Give her actual depth beyond “she knows cars and wears grease-stained clothes.” Make her personality feel real instead of checking boxes on a character sheet.
The Maintenance Required Cast Deserves Better Material
Madelaine Petsch tries her best with the weak script. She’s got natural charisma, but even she can’t save dialogue this cringeworthy. Jacob Scipio is fine as Belo, though the character makes some choices that completely undermine the romance they’re trying to build.
Katy O’Brien, who was phenomenal in Love Lies Bleeding, shows up as Charlie’s friend Cam and is criminally underutilized. She’s the most authentic-feeling person in the whole movie, actually convincing as someone who works in a garage. Why wasn’t she the lead?
Jim Gaffigan plays the corporate villain and phones it in completely.
The supporting cast tries to inject some life into their scenes, but they’re working with material that gives them nothing interesting to do.
Where Everything Falls Apart
The script is genuinely bad. The dialogue feels unnatural and forced, constantly pulling you out of whatever investment you might have built. Characters say things no actual human would say, and their motivations make zero sense half the time.
The pacing is a disaster, especially in the third act. Charlie discovers Belo is her online connection, gets upset, and drives off. Then the movie jumps forward a month, she has one conversation with her friends at a café, and suddenly she’s ready to forgive him and live happily ever after. What?
The corporate rivalry subplot with Belo’s chain undercutting Charlie’s prices feels like it was written by someone who’s never run a business. The tire-changing competition is pointless. The side characters’ arcs go nowhere meaningful.
Some Positives, I Guess
The cinematography looks decent. First-time director Lacy Alder at least made the movie visually pleasant, with some nice shots and solid drone footage. San Francisco looks pretty, even if the setting feels superficial.
The soundtrack has some good choices that kept scenes from being completely unbearable. The music does more heavy lifting than the actual script, which is telling.
Should You Waste Your Time on This?
Probably not. There are countless better rom-coms on every streaming platform. This one brings nothing new to the genre and executes the familiar beats poorly.
If you’re desperate for something light and forgettable to put on while folding laundry, sure, go ahead. But if you actually want a rom-com that’ll make you feel something or laugh genuinely, look elsewhere.
Maintenance Required is the definition of assembly-line streaming content: technically functional but completely soulless. It exists, you can watch it, and then you’ll forget it immediately.
Have you suffered through this movie? Did the tomboy mechanic thing work better for you than it did for me? Let me know if I’m being too harsh!
