Sweethearts 2024

Ben, Nico Hiraga and Jamie, Kiernan Shipka, are college freshmen and best friends since eighth grade, stepping onto campus with the weight of long-distance relationships and shifting futures. They lean on each other as they juggle the demands of newfound independence and the memories of a high school world they’re leaving behind. Ben is in a relationship with Claire, Ava DeMary, whose controlling tendencies color how he navigates his social life, while Jamie carries the quiet ache of childhood bullying that complicates her ability to forge new bonds. Jamie, in turn, feels the pull of her own boredom with Simon, her boyfriend back home, and she wonders if her friendship with Ben is enough to anchor her through the abrupt changes of college. Together, they try to reframe their long-standing pact: Ben will push Jamie to expand her circle, and Jamie will push back against the impulse to stay in a safe, familiar bubble. Yet behind Ben’s encouraging stance lies a quiet fear that he will soon study abroad in Copenhagen next semester, and telling Jamie the truth might make her feel abandoned.

At their first college party, the evening tests both of them in different ways. Ben resists the advances of a drunken partygoer, steady and respectful, while Jamie slips into a bedroom to exchange messages with Simon, seeking a spark of connection in a new place. The moment goes awry when Jamie is forced to leave her clothes behind as two partygoers enter the room to have sex, and Ben, trying to salvage the situation, is caught attempting to retrieve them. The pair is ejected from the party, their violation of the night’s boundaries underscoring the fragility of newly minted freedom. Their friend Palmer reveals he’s heading back to their hometown in Ohio and plans to host a coming-out party the night before Thanksgiving, a revelation that sets a new tone for the campus-wide conversations about identity and belonging. In the wake of the chaos, Ben and Jamie decide they will end their relationships that night, a decision born of a wish to protect each other from painful endings and a fear of losing their bond to the distractions of college life.

A snafu with Ben’s roommate—who takes his car without permission—delays their trip. The two decide to ride the bus instead, a modest detour that becomes a longer journey as they arrive at Palmer’s gathering. There, Claire and Simon drink an entire bottle of absinthe and stumble into a perilous intoxication. With the help of Reese, a local football coach, they are safely returned to the party’s edge, and the evening loosens into a moment of revelation: Palmer realizes Reese is gay and opens up about his own uncertainties. Reese introduces Palmer to a bowling team made up of gay men, and Palmer’s world expands in a way that gives him a new sense of belonging and courage.

Meanwhile, Ben and Jamie search for Claire and Simon at a bar, sneaking in with a sense of resolve. Jamie is confronted by a childhood bully who asks for forgiveness, and she reluctantly grants it, a moment that underscores her long struggle with forgiveness and self-definition. The bouncer’s shouts and the night’s shifting energy throw their plans off balance, and a heated argument between Ben and Jamie follows as frustration edges into anger. They learn Claire and Simon are at another party and decide to press onward toward it. The night teeters on a delicate edge as Palmer accidentally leaks Ben’s plan to study abroad, and Jamie realizes she is the only one who truly didn’t know. Her anger snaps to the surface, and she leaves to find Simon, hoping to anchor herself in a familiar ritual rather than in the unknown.

The party’s tension peaks when Claire makes a bold bid to reconnect with Ben in an outdoor tree fort, while Jamie, below, breaks up with Simon in a scene that feels intimate yet strained. Ben and Claire overhear the conversation and Claire’s anger grows as she learns that Ben and Jamie had secretly plotted the breakups together, a discovery that fractures trust in a powerful way. Claire and Simon leave separately, convinced that Ben and Jamie are codependent and hiding a secret romance. In the aftermath, Ben and Jamie confront their feelings and share a kiss that is more about reaffirming a bond than declaring romance. As the night ends, the circle of friends returns to their own corners, carrying the weight of what has happened and what it might mean for their futures.

Thanksgiving arrives with a decisive moment of clarity for Ben. He watches When Harry Met Sally…, a film that seems to illuminate the possibility of friendship and boundaries, and he appears to have an epiphany about Jamie. He confronts her, admitting that his kiss was not about love for her but about the messy, tangled edges of their evolving relationship, and he asserts that he wants to remain friends. Jamie finds relief in the truth and affirms her own desire to move forward as she returns to school, breaking up with Simon in a proper, dignified way. Ben does the same with Claire, tying up their romantic chapters before leaving for Europe. Palmer, meanwhile, begins a new relationship with a local man named Lukas, who brings a quiet sense of warmth and acceptance to the circle.

Six months pass, and the distance of time softens the sharp edges of their earlier conflicts. Ben returns and surprises Jamie at her sorority party, a moment of anticipation threaded with nostalgia and possibility. As they share loving glances while dancing, the long arc of their friendship—built on years of trust, fear, and care—feels poised to redefine what they mean to each other now that the path ahead is wider and less certain.