Splitsville – first-look review | Little White Lies

The course of true love never did run smooth, and for the kind but clueless Carey (Kyle Marvin) he’s in for a rude awakening. His wife of 13 months, whom he met at a concert for soft-rock crooners The Fray, has just announced she wants a divorce. Ashley (Adria Arjona) is a free-spirited life coach, and just can’t see a future with Carey, despite his clear adoration of her. He seeks solace from his wealthy friends Paul (Michael Angelo Covino) and Julie (Dakota Johnson) who reveal the secret to their own seemingly harmonious relationship: an open marriage. Paul and Julie theorise that in removing the shame associated with cheating, they give themselves no reason to break up. At first Carey is surprised, but he quickly comes around to the idea. After all – it seems to be working for Paul and Julie. Right…?!

Marvin and Covino are real life best friends (who also wrote and starred in 2019’s The Climb together) so it figures their on-screen chemistry is natural and charming, but the buddies quickly come to blows when Carey gets himself mixed up in Paul’s marriage, and a ludicrous fight scene between the two of them in Paul’s architecturally splendid lake house is an early highlight of the film. There’s less chemistry between the actors and their on-screen wives, despite the fact Arjona and Johnson are quite convincing comedians. It’s never really clear what these beautiful, savvy women see in Carey and Paul, particularly the latter, who repeatedly proves himself to be at best a liability, at worst a psychopath – which is shrugged off as endearing by his friends and wife, as is the behaviour of their tearaway child Russ who keeps stealing jet skis and getting in trouble at school.

It’s a highly macho sort of romantic comedy posing as progressive by showing two sexually liberated modern women, but we don’t really ever get much insight into their characters beyond the fact that their pursuit of other partners stems from a lack of satisfaction rather than, y’know, just wanting to live their lives. Despite its supposed progressive premise about the way modern relationships can work, Splitsville is in fact quite traditional by its conclusion, rendering most of the plot ultimately a waste of time. It’s a film not without occasional moments of spark, and flits along quite happily, but Splitsville seems continually intent on undermining itself, and in the process becomes totally forgettable.