Review of The One I Love (2014) by Thedrauch — 21 Dec 2014

Low-budget, yet simultaneously ambitious in conception, "The One I Love" reminds me of another **** of equally low budget, "Coherence". In both films, the premise is undeniably clever and engages us throughout, while also bringing up a number of big questions and themes relating to loyalty, identity, and reality.

"The One I Love" makes much fuller use of it's premise than "Coherence" and is the better film of the two. There is a much bigger focus on character here; whereas "Coherence" sold it's heady premise as a challenging, yet entertaining brain-puzzle, "The One I Love" takes it further by adding a more honed focus on the central relationship of the couple.

The performances of The One I Love are multi-faceted and subtle, our loyalties shifting from one version of a character to the other. Duplass and Moss deliver charming charism and obligatory depth. Their performances are what keeps the film engaging on a character level.

The premise gets the better of the movie, unfortunately. That is to say that the film doesn't know how to resolve itself in a simultaneously thematically pleasing and conceptually rewarding manner. The ending is a bit too cynical to feel like a fitting send-off to these characters and it's too predictable and ordinary to have worked out the plot conflicts established early on in a realistic way.

There are places I wish The One I Love had gone; other aspects of the premise I wish it had made use of or explored. However, this movie still has more ingenuity that most out there and it's an undeniably entertaining flick, one that stands as one of 2014s better works.