Hi, Bryan Here….

Director Charlie McDowell and writer Justin Lader are newcomers to the film world, and with their incredible movie ‘The One I Love‘, I expect big, bright futures for the both of them. I left the theater with a big smile on my face and couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed what I just saw on-screen. It took me back to the first time I saw my first ‘Twilight Zone‘ episode, and how much that transformed me into wanting to make movies and write mini-scripts with my dad’s old dinosaur video camera that sat on my small shoulder.

I didn’t know much about ‘The One I Love’ before I walked into the theater, only that it starred Mark Duplass (Pete from ‘The League‘) and Elizabeth Moss (Peggy from ‘Mad Men‘). Needless to say with a cast like that, I need to see everything they’re in. This film is a perfect story of falling in love and the reverse – falling out of love with a flawless sci-fi twist that I wasn’t expecting. It’s as if Lader and McDowell were huge fans of ‘The Twilight Zone‘, like myself, and added the best aspects of that show into a feature length movie. I cannot wait to sit and watch this again and again for many years to come. This premiered at Sundance this year and was picked up quickly by a studio with the hopes of giving it a wide release later this year, which is great news for all of you, because I imagine you all will love it.

We meet Ethan and Sophie (Duplass and Moss), two thirty-somethings who have been married for a while, but have started to have severe problems with their relationship due to an affair Ethan had years prior. It’s gotten so bad that Sophie and Ethan don’t have sex anymore and cannot connect with one another. This is why they are seeing a marriage counselor, played by Ted Danson, who has all of one minute of screen-time or less. He tells the couple that they should do a weekend getaway, which will give them a chance to “reset the reset button” on their relationship, and that this has worked for many couples in the past. Willing to try anything to save their marriage, Ethan and Sophie head up to the mountains to a gorgeous estate with a luxurious yet warm house right by the mountains with all of the amenities including food, wine, a pool, marijuana, beautiful gardens of flowers, and a very nice guest house.

This whole place is theirs for the weekend to work out their problems and find that love they once had for each other. Their first night there, Sophie wanders over to the guest house and has an amazing night with Ethan, as they play games, drink wine, and make love for the first time in a long while. She heads back to the main house to find Ethan fast asleep there on  the couch with no memory of what just happened, which causes a fight between the two of them. The following morning, Ethan heads to the guest house to find Sophie making breakfast consisting of eggs and bacon, which is strange to Ethan as Sophie does not want Ethan to eat bacon. He then heads back to the main house and finds Sophie in a different outfit in the bathroom.

Things start to take a very strange turn from here, as Sophie and Ethan try to figure out what exactly is happening on this elegant estate and with their relationship. Lader and McDowell use this fresh and unique take (‘Twilight Zone’) on a relationship, and show us what we as couples go through when things go bad in our own lives. The usual things are covered here such as betrayal, trust, and honesty, which are common things in most relationships. And the creative duo do a great job in making us not take sides with either character, as they both have their own flaws and good traits. All we know is that we want to see this couple succeed.

Duplass and Moss are both amazing and are virtually in every scene in the film, as they are the only two actors literally in the film besides the one minute Danson is on-screen. There is a great blend of comedy, romance, with a hint of a sci-fi thriller that will leave you talking for days. If there is one romantic comedy you plan on seeing this year, make it ‘The One I Love‘. Excellent film.

5 out of 5 STARS

-Bryan Kluger