Cert – 15, Run-time – 1 hour 45 minutes, Director – Michael Angelo Covino
When Carey’s (Kyle Marvin) wife (Adria Arjona) asks for a divorce he learns friends Paul (Michael Angelo Corvino) and Julie’s (Dakota Johnson) marriage secret is an open relationship. However, chaos and competition erupts between all four when Carey and Julie sleep together.
Despite good reviews I was somewhat sceptical going into Splitsville. Not being overly struck by the trailers it seemed the sex comedy angle may have been likely to not particularly strike me. What a welcome surprise it is that in actuality a rom-com in the vein of the late-90s and 2000s emerges from this polyamory comedy. One led and consistently sparked by the decisions of its characters rather than situations thrown at them.
Carey (Kyle Marvin) believe that he’s happily married to Ashley (Adria Arjona) until in the middle of a car ride she asks for a divorce. Running to his married friends’ house for help he learns that the secret to Paul (Michael Angelo Corvino) and Julie’s (Dakota Johnson) happy marriage is that they’re in an open relationship. However, when Carey and Julie sleep together tensions erupt leading to scraps and competition between all four characters as open relationships are tested and explored.
A wave of guests, some staying much longer than others, come in and our of Carey and Ashley’s home. A handful of scenes capture the busy chaos of the personalities, and bodies, seemingly sent to test Carey as he’s busy falling more into a relationship with Julie. Leaning into the comedy of these characters, without bringing out a sense of wackiness, and the situation they’re all a part of – has Ashley broken up with them yet, or are they on the schedule to be broken up with next week?
Corvino and Marvin’s screenplay (Corvino also acts as director) is smart and filled with plenty of chuckles as it relaxes into the swing of its shaken relationship story. Putting the characters and their responses at the core of that story and seeing the developments all the way through to the end – including an amusing turn from Nicholas Braun as a mentalist struggling at a children’s birthday party. In this way, it feels as if things infrequently step into cheap gags just for the sake of a laugh, it wouldn’t fit in with the surroundings, including a subplot about Paul and Julie’s young son Russ (Simon Webster) starting to act out, a running gag involves him having a tendency to steal jet-skis.
There’s a sparky rom-com in Splitsville, the tagline runs “an unromantic comedy” which perhaps seems more fitting than calling it an anti-rom-com. However, there’s still a genuine feeling to the relationships at hand as their tested from all angles with increasingly relaxed attitudes which just add to the tensions in the quartet’s separate and joint relationships with each other. A solid dose of modern-angled comedy in a familiar rom-com vein, and a welcome surprise, too.
A modern-angled rom-com in a 90s-2000s vein, Splitsville is a smart, funny, character-led look at the chaos the growing tensions in the central relationships raises.
Just A Little Bit Random 