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You Won't Hate It

An old, buried family secret is at the center of Justin Lerner's "The Automatic Hate". At first, though, the only thing we know is that when Alexis (Adelaide Clemens) turns up outside of the apartment that Davis (Joseph Cross) shares with his girlfriend, Cassie (Deborah Ann Woll), something is amiss. Alexis tells Davis that she is there because they are cousins through his father, which makes no sense, because Davis's father was an only child. Davis sends Alexis away.

Although the allegations make no sense to Davis, a part of him wonders about it. He visits his dad (Richard Schiff) at the college where he's a professor. After Davis presses his father enough, he learns that his father did have a brother and that they haven't spoken in many years. Davis continues to press, but learns nothing more from his father. He does figure out that his uncle lives on a farm in upstate New York and he heads there to find out the details, against the objections of his father.

Alexis's father is no more interested in opening up about what happened with his brothers, many years earlier. Davis gives up and Alexis drives him away from her parent's home. During the drive, Alexis swerves off of the main road into a forest until they arrive at a cabin that Alexis's father owns. Alexis and Davis search the cabin looking for clues and they happen upon a promising one. It takes a new turn when Alexis hits on Davis and he responds. They are now kissing cousins. Actually they have become a bit more than that and another extended family secret has been born.

With the stage now set, Davis's grandfather dies, forcing everyone together for the funeral, and of course fireworks fly and the truth comes exploding out. The main problem with all of it is that we learn very little about most of the characters, especially the wives of the reunited brothers.

They have about two lines of dialog between them and they only barely show up in a scene or two. The other issue is what it is that makes Alexis tick. Is she just in love? Is she a deranged psycho? What motivates her odd behaviors? I have no idea. These questions don't make me automatically hate it all, but it does cut a major gash into my loving it.