The Summer is over and before Fall can kick in three 20-something-year-old couples who are good friends leave the NY for a weekend break together in a borrowed house on a pretty island somewhere. As soon as they arrive and make claims to their bedrooms for their short vacation the kvetching starts. Rather than focus on getting to the beach, each couple begins bringing up an issue which has been unsettling them, and evidently as it is the cause of some unhappiness it’s why that they cannot resist the urge to whine.
The lesbian couple Alex and Jackie haven’t had sex for ages and the discovery of a rainbow colored dildo in Alex’s bag causes Jackie to go off into a big sulk. James and Spencer ….. the gay couple ….. are trying to come to terms with the news that Spencer has got a place in graduate school in Chicago, but he is refusing to tell James if he will accept or not. The straight couple Liz and Dougie cannot keep their hands off each other and seem blissfully happy until he has to confess he cannot ride a bike : a revelation that actually may evidently undermine their whole relationship.
This introspective romantic comedy that could very easily be re-titled ‘The Weekend We Squabbled‘ was helmed by newbie director William C. Sullivan who co-wrote the story line. The script itself was actually improvised by the cast over their 8 day shoot on location which will probably account for some of the wince-making clangers that they trotted out from time to time. All this navel-watching would have worked so much better if they didn’t all react to every minor development quite so dramatically, and they actually added much more humor to their tales. The latter is the reason why James & Spencer’s worked best of all, and was the most watchable.
Credit though to the actors for their very convincing portrayals, and even though there was this concerted effort to give a positive spin to their stories before the end, it is such a pity then didn’t stop whining more and just simply lighten up.
Labels: 2016, romantic comedy
