If you have spent any time on a dating app in hetero-world, you’ve probably encountered the type: enthusiastic, communicative, “partnered” with someone but “open” and very eager to talk about it. Or, rather, explain it – how it works, what the rules are, why it’s right for them. There is, of course, nothing inherently wrong with ethical non-monogamy – actually, there can be a lot right – nor should there be any universal expectations of romantic relationships besides mutual respect. But the reputation of ENMs in the straight dating world, however rightly earned, is suspect: expected condescension, mutually projected emotional superiority. Perhaps right in principle but also often annoying, and thus ripe for comedic skewering.
Enter Splitsville, a new so-called “unromantic comedy” from longtime friends and writing partners Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino about a foursome of friends imperiled by loose boundaries. Owing to the protracted timeline and gargantuan feat of simply making a movie, the 104-minute film arrives a few years after buzz around open relationships percolated again, at least in New York, the city around which these four characters spiritually orbit. One might worry that Splitsville, directed by Covino, might feel a little passé, though that’s dispelled when the hapless Carey (Marvin) reveals that he and his life coach / wife Ashley (a ridiculously luminous Adria Arjona) met at a concert for The Fray, the Grey’s Anatomy-core band from the late 2000s – if this idea is washed, well, they’re in on the joke.
