Splitsville Film Review: The Chaos of Love

Splitsville is a laugh-out-loud screwball comedy with standout performances, kinetic energy, and interesting insight on love beneath the madness.

Ashley decides that’s a good time to tell Carey that she’s been unfaithful and wants a divorce, which gives you an idea of the tone you’re about to get.

Devastated, Carey flees to his best friend Paul (Michael Angelo Covino, Riff Raff) and his wife Julie (Dakota Johnson, Materialists), who reveal that they’re in an open relationship that they both seem totally fine with until Julie sleeps with Carey. From there… well, it’s just a wonderful crashout from all four of these emotionally unbalanced people, all of whom keep trying to act like they’re ahead of the game.

Splitsville boasts a perfect collection of four main characters. Carey is the fragile puppy dog who pathetically can’t handle his ideals of love collapsing right in front of him, which also makes him more vulnerable to getting torn between his ex-wife and his sympathetic friend-turned-something-else. Ashley tries to act like she can move on and initially succeeds in doing so, but the longer she’s forced to put up with Carey’s antics and watch the mess from up close, the more she starts rethinking what she even wants.

Dakota Johnson interestingly plays her second character with a seemingly progressive approach to romance following Materialists, with Julie being able to casually separate physical love from emotional love. But you can see her recognize that her actions are opening cracks which force her to confront why she’s fine with an open marriage in the first place. The same applies to her husband, but in a much more volatile way. He’s a hot mess of bad choices and childishness that lets Michael Angelo Covino be far and away the comedic standout, which is no surprise given he also directed and co-wrote the movie.

As people start falling for other people, then wavering, then seeing others catch wind who then interfere with a developing romance, but then those people reveal their intentions that change how everyone looks at everyone else… yeah, Splitsville is a chaotic story, one that keeps building and changing to a point where the final portion has you gleefully asking, “How the hell did we even get here?” And it’s all just plain funny, filled to the brim with gnarly slapstick and punchy one-liners that contribute to the eccentric world these people inhabit. I’d classify Splitsville as a screwball comedy, and it joins The Naked Gun in being among the best we’ve gotten in years.

Splitsville matches the explosive dynamics between its cast with kinetic energy and direction. You’ve already seen how the opening establishes its unhinged nature, and I’m not even kidding when I say one of the most entertaining fight sequences of the year is found later in this movie. The sequence towards the end where everything finally hits the fan is chaotically filmed and edited to perfection in what I recall being one long, frenetic shot that just keeps escalating. Paul and Julie being rich also lets us spend time in their beautifully designed home… before that home is utterly desecrated, of course.

But what elevates Splitsville from being a really funny movie to just a great movie overall is the fact that, somehow, it still finds a way to sneak in a decent amount of heart. The situation and characters are all absurd, yeah, and this isn’t some profoundly powerful statement on love in disguise. But you can likely still relate to the intentions of even the most questionable decisions made, and the history everyone has with each other is always kept at the core of what drives them. You can legitimately take away something relatable here pertaining to romance, sex, and insecurities, especially in a “progressive” modern setting.

The film doesn’t even treat open relationships as concretely good or bad, even though it clearly skewers how certain characters handle them, and it demonstrates that the “open” part of such relationships means opening yourself up to as many harmful outcomes as favorable ones. I’m still not sure how I feel about how everything wraps up, and I mean that in a good way because I don’t know whether the outcome for everyone is truly what’s best for them or not. It’s shown in a lighthearted way, but you’re still left to decide for yourself if the worst has passed.

Considering the cast and genre, it’s a real shame that Splitsville has gotten as little coverage or distribution as it has. I know it wouldn’t be a slam dunk for everyone, but this is an original, laugh-out-loud funny film with top-notch comedic performances, tons of fun turns, and even a touch of depth beneath the antics. It also pays lovely tribute to The Fray, rest in peace. What more could you ask for?

Splitsville is now available to watch in U.S. and Canadian theaters.