The One I Love

This film is the one I love; you see what I did there, for my top ten list of the year. I love this film, but it is hard to talk about it because I don’t want to spoil anything. Director Charlie McDowell creates this fresh, unique film about relationships that didn’t see coming. All I will say about the plot is that a couple goes to a resort to fix their marital problems, that’s it. That’s how vague I can go with this film because it’s one of those films you need to experience. This is McDowell’s first feature film and I have to congratulate him because he did an excellent job. Mark Duplass and Elizabeth Moss fill up nearly every second and their chemistry is natural and realistic. Moss comes from “Mad Men” and Duplass comes from “The League”, two very different animals. “The League” is more of a free roam show and the comedy comes from the actors and actresses heavy improv; and “Mad Men” is more heavily scripted and by the
words, so it was nice to see both of these actors from different television shows act in a scene together. They were both able to appear like they have been a married couple for many years, so the chemistry came off natural. It also helps when most of this movie was mostly improv and when improve is pulled off smoothly, it makes the dialogue and chemistry between the actors feel organic The cinematography is well done and adds a euphoric, dream like tone to the film. It’s mainly these two actors at one location, yet its shot well and keeps the story moving along. That’s all I will say considering if I say anymore I will be going into spoiler territory. At its hour and a half runtime, roughly, the film does a good job at entrancing you into this story. I never felt like it dragged and always kept my interest. Fifteen minutes in, I was hooked even though my interest for this film was already high. This is an original, yet different story about
relationships and, truly, a gem of a film that I want to watch again soon. I can’t recommend this to you more than I already have. 9/10





Audio Interview with Mark Duplass and director Charlie McDowell