Taking advice from your friends always sounds like a great idea until you realize they have no idea what they are talking about either. Splitsville finds one couple trying to imitate another before realizing everyone is just terrible.
Splitsville Review
Rated R comedies are scarce these days. I miss the era of Tropic Thunder, The Hangover, and Horrible Bosses. Occasionally one pops up and I rush to see it, wanting to support non-tentpole projects. (Yes I still love my Marvel, Star Wars, etc) Splitsville caught my eye with its premise: one man in an attempt to keep his marriage from ending goes to get advice from his friend since his marriage is so “perfect.” Now, we all know how it will go. Funny enough of an idea to have me curious (open marriage vs traditional and the chaos involved on both sides) and word of mouth suggested it was one of the funniest things that graced cinemas this year. Well, it was far from the funniest thing I've seen all year, with only a few jokes really getting a chuckle out me.
Directed by Michael Angelo Covino, who also produces, co-writes and co-stars alongside Kyle Marvin, Neon's Splitsville continues the comedic duo's showcasing of bad choices. Specifically, they enjoy showing men make increasingly poor decisions while being entirely childish, petty, and self-absorbed. It worked well in their film The Climb but ends up becoming a determinant in their sophomore outing as it ends up making none of the main cast likable. On the one hand, this is a film about modern marriage and the idea that we don't know what happens behind closed doors. But on the other, it explores male friendship in the most ridiculous ways possible. Think of these two like Ricky Bobby and Cal but not nearly as funny (or quotable). Splitsville is an uneven comedy that throws a gutter ball every time it tries to make a meaningful point.
Married couple, Carey (Marvin) and Ashley (Adria Arjona), are on their way to visit their best friends Paul (Covino) and his wife Julie (Dakota Johnson) at their lake house. During some road “fun,” a horrible tragedy takes place – Carey's erratic driving caused someone else to crash and they died. Shocked by what happened, Ashley decides it's the perfect time to tell Carey that she is unhappy and wants a divorce. He freaks out and literally runs to Paul and Julie who tell him that their secret to happiness is an open marriage. Eventually, Carey sleeps with Julie, Ashley takes lovers, and all sorts of jealousies and feelings spew out amongst the four of them.
Touted as the anti-romcom, Splitsville is still very much one, following along the inevitable path these films take. Sure there are breaks in the “who's going to get with whom?” This is thanks to the screwball physical comedy Covino and Marvin enjoy. There is one particularly long scene where the two men fight one another, busting up surprisingly cheap furniture as they live out their action-thriller dreams. The fight will make you laugh, especially when they break a fish tank but stop fighting to heroically save the fish, until it goes on too long. Then you're just left wondering when these middle aged, out-of-breath losers are going to stop trying to beat each other up.
The rest of the film plays like a sitcom. Romantic partners and entanglements pop up with increasing frequency. Every action has a reaction. Each joke/visual gag from the beginning has a callback by the end. Paul and Carey's friendship remains the focal point as Julie and Ashley get pushed further and further into the background. It leaves you pondering why they would even bother sticking around but worse it also leaves you no one to root for. Rom-com's bread and butter is making you root for a specific couple or character to get their happy ending. With Splitsville, you can't help but wish they would all just go their separate ways because clearly they are horribly matched.
Johnson and Arjona do the best with what they are given, but are mostly relegated to being the objects needed for moving men's story along. One of my biggest pet peeves was Ashley's dating shenanigans. I'm not sure if this was the intent of Covino and Marvin but every man in this movie was a doormat… all of them. If any of Ashley's lovers had fit a different archetype it would've been more believable and also kept the jokes from being stale. When you leave one man who barely qualifies to be one for more of the same, what are you doing? When your dialogue claims you want adventure and spice, why are you continuing to partake in vanilla? Some could argue it's because she wanted her meek husband the whole time but I just found it to be boring and formulaic.
Marvin and Covino deliver more of the same kind of characters they played in The Climb (a film also directed by Covino and written by both he and Marvin). Marvin's Carey is similar to Jason Segel's Peter Bretter in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, but never quite shakes the sad sack, cringe aspect of the character to become more likable. Covino is full of cynicism and prefers to be in the corner judging humanity. The two play off each other well, after all they are best friends in real life too, so their friendship is never questionable. It's their relationships with the women that fall flat. There are some emotional moments but they equally fail to bring about any type of reaction mainly because at that point you don't really care if these people get a happily ever after.
Verdict
Ultimately, Splitsville is trying to do too much and it suffers for it. If it just wanted to satirize modern romance and the fact that no-one really knows what goes behind closed doors I think it could've been good. Or, if it chose to focus on the bromance of two men as they navigate tricky times in their lives, that could've equally been entertaining. However, it tries to do both of these, as well as throw in some commentary about parenting and financial scheming. It's a lot to cram into a short runtime and even more so when you think about how this is supposed to be a comedy. The duo are decent with their jokes but need to work on how to best get the most out of whatever emotional impact they are going for.
Splitsville is in theaters now. It is rated R for language throughout, sexual content and graphic nudity with a runtime of 1 hour and 44 minutes.
Leave a Reply