Review of The One I Love (2014) by Richard S — 13 Sep 2014

I knew nothing about this movie going into it, which is extremely rare for me. I went to a 5:00 showing on a Sunday afternoon, and in turn, I got one of the most pleasant surprises of the year. I personally recommend that you go into this knowing virtually nothing like I did, but it wouldn't ruin your viewing experience or anything if you did.

So, full disclosure ahead, I'm going including spoilers, but I think that it'd be better to go in knowing nothing since none of the synopses that I've seen actually fully tell the plot. Anyways, this movie is pretty great.

I know that this sounds like a super weird comparison, but it reminded me of a cross between Twelfth Night and The Twilight Zone or a "monster-of-the-week" episode of The X-Files. It looks and starts like a rather standard romantic comedy (but it's actually funny, so that's already a plus), but instead turns into something much more unique.

The acting is very good: both Duplass and Moss give realistic performances while injecting subtle differences due to the fact that each of them plays two different characters (to an extent). The script gives us smart characters that don't do stupid things solely to move the plot along, and the pacing is good.

It's 91 minutes, but doesn't feel like it's too short. As the movie slowly unravels itself, it becomes more and more interesting, but never becomes tonally inconsistent. It does its job very well and stays modest throughout, mostly due to its humor.

It wouldn't quite make it onto my list of the best films of 2014 because I wouldn't say that it holds the analysis-worthy rewatches that Enemy demanded earlier this year (which this film did remind me of to a certain extent), but it does have some interesting views on relationships and marriage.

It's a great indie that you should try to catch if you can, specifically in a theater as opposed to on streaming or in the ancillary market. 8.6/10, great, (almost) two thumbs up, far above average, etc.