10 Years 2012

On the night of their ten-year high school reunion, Jake and his girlfriend Jess roll up to the home of his now-married friends Cully and Sam, and the mood is a mix of nostalgia and nerves. As more former classmates show up, the house fills with familiar faces: best friends Marty and AJ, the famous musician Reeves, and the adventurous Scott with his wife Suki. They soon depart for the reunion and reconnect with Garrity and his wife Olivia, while Garrity’s best friend Andre joins the group. A quiet, solitary entrance is made by Elise, a reclusive classmate who arrives alone and feels a chill of being overlooked by the party planner, Anna, who still carries the aura of prom queen.

In the car, Jake pulls out an envelope containing an engagement ring and reveals his long-held plan to propose to Jess, but he’s torn as he spots his old flame Mary with her husband Paul. The moment casts a shadow over the group’s dynamics, and awkward introductions mix with flickers of old friendships as Jake and Mary try to pick up where they left off from eight years ago. Reeves and Elise share a memory as Reeves notices a photo of Elise wearing bright yellow shoes, a small detail that triggers a cascade of recollections and a spark between them.

The night unfolds with its own quirks. Olivia discovers Garrity’s surprising love for hip hop, and Cully, in a drunken haze, fumbles a sincere apology to some nerdy classmates from their high school days. Meanwhile, Marty and AJ’s attempts to flirt with Anna cause a pause in the party’s energy, and Jake and Mary confront the prom they never had because Mary’s father suffered a heart attack on that night many years ago. As the party winds toward the night’s turn, the group heads to a local karaoke bar. Reeves’s flirtations with Elise resume, but she declines, keeping her distance despite the chemistry they share. Anna exits the scene early, and Marty and AJ decide to toilet-paper her house, a prank that heightens the undercurrents of fragile pride and unresolved pasts. At the bar, Jess notices Jake’s behavior around Mary and decides to leave the scene, returning to the hotel under the guise of feeling tired, while Paul follows suit in his own quiet exit. Scott and Suki take the stage for karaoke, and Olivia watches Garrity’s breakdancing with a kind of amused admiration.

When Reeves is coaxed to perform his hit song, the crowd pressure centers on him to perform “Never Had,” a track about the girl he misses. The performance becomes more than a moment of bravado; the line about the bright yellow shoes reveals itself to Elise, and she realizes the song’s subject is her. The pair share a kiss and spend the remainder of the night together, a turning point that reframes Elise’s place in the reunion.

In a later moment, Anna catches Marty and AJ in the act of vandalizing her home and the revelation shatters her; she opens up about her life as a single mother with two kids, leaving the trio to confront their own consequences. Marty confesses that he isn’t the successful New Yorker he pretends to be; he lives in a modest apartment, and AJ reveals that he’s getting a divorce. The three of them find common ground in discussing the real, imperfect trajectories their lives have taken.

As the night edges toward dawn, Cully’s drunken stumble creates a rift with Sam, while Scott reveals plans to return to Japan with Suki for more adventures. A pivotal moment arrives when Mary asks Jake to share the long-promised dance from their high school years, and she confides that she is pregnant. The revelation fills both with a sense of acceptance and contentment about the paths their lives have taken. Jake heads back to the hotel and finds Jess awake, explaining that she stepped away so he could have the chance to find closure with Mary.

The two couples and their friends later converge at a diner, a space for raw reflection and quiet humor. Jake’s next move is to retrieve the engagement ring from the envelope in his car, a final gesture of whether to move forward or to let the past rest. In the end, the night leaves them with a mosaic of truths: the friendships that endure, the lives that diverge, and the quiet certainty that some reunions are about closure, while others are about new beginnings—the kind that come from facing what truly matters and choosing where to place one’s heart.