Marathon runner Otto Wall was so obsessed with his training schedule and winning trophies to impress Edie his young daughter, that he failed to notice that his wife Annie didn’t share his enthusiasm for his passion or for him either. When she asked him to join her for a session with a Therapist that he was even unaware she had been seeing, he was totally shocked to find himself ambushed and emphatically told that their marriage was over and he must move out of the family home immediately.Now in his late 30’s and struggling to come terms with not just the fact that he was single again, but also that he still had no idea why Annie was so unhappy and what had gone wrong in what had been a drama-free relationship. He has to learn how to find women to go out with, and just as important, also what to actually do on each date particular as he makes some odd choices for potential partners. At least sex comes easy for him. First with Stephanie a hot old flame who is recently divorced and is just looking for a no-strings fling, then there is young Mildred who likes to sit naked opposite him and get off without either of them touching each other. Then there is Debbie Spanger the fervent bible-basher who instant regrets how tempted she was to indulge in the ways of the flesh the very next day.
Otto however is really looking for something more stable and long term than these women offer, and he gets quite excited when Lara, an old summer-camp crush suddenly reappears in his life as she could possibly just fit the bill. The one snag is that this just may just interfere with all his efforts to get his relationship with Edie back on solid ground after she has blatantly sided with her mother after the separation.
This refreshing new comedy/drama is the directing debut of Angus MacLachlan who wrote the award-winning ‘Junebug’ back in 2005. It has imbued this movie with the same intelligent and gentle humor with characters and a plot that is so easy to relate too. The story is told very much from the point of view of Otto a semi-oblivious, but extremely likable man who may just let life slip by, and he is played by Paul Schneider in a delightfully understated performance. Even when he is finally faced with the fact that Annie his self-centered and manipulative wife had been having an affair for almost a year his anger seems to dissipate quite quickly as if he suddenly realizes he never really knew her at all, and anyway he has finally figured what he wants out of life.
Great supporting cast with Melanie Lynskey as Annie, talented young Audrey P. Scott as Edie, Amy Sedaris in a very brief cameo as Otto’s boss, and Heather Graham in one of her far-too-infrequent roles as the sexy divorcee. Kudos though to veteran actress Celia Weston in her hilarious scene-stealing turn as the manipulative and interfering Therapist.This is the kind of delightful low-profile insightful independent movie that so deserves an audience beyond the Film Festival circuit and I so hope it finds it.
