- Release Date: 08/08/2014
- Cast: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson
- Director: Charlie McDowell
‘The One I Love’ is one of the oddest films that I have seen of late, and it is not because of its story or screenplay but because of how few of our questions about the film, the plot, its ending, and its underlying themes are answered throughout the runtime. It would indeed have been a challenge to answer these questions, as the predicament that we see the protagonists of the film get into is not only bizarre and inexplicable but is also extremely personal and realistically dealt with in the film. Hence, an out-of-this-world explanation and any more insight into something that has been kept a secret by the ones who perpetrated the whole plot and brought our protagonists into it would have only decimated the delicate suspension of disbelief that the film manages to pull off.
What ‘The One I Love’ is successful in laying out through its proceedings is a mesmerizing tale of realization, frustration, surprises, and getting answers to some of the key questions that couples often ask themselves and often fail to answer. Why do we drift apart in a relationship? What is it that can bring us back together? In a country like India, the causes for separation can be unnerving, brutal, societal, financial, and many more things that our American or European counterparts can never begin to imagine or comprehend. The film wouldn’t do much in terms of giving satisfactory answers, resolutions to these issues or engaging people who have lost their relationships to one of these causes. However, if you are an American or a European living in some benevolent country where survival alone is not a pressing issue and you are allowed to complicate your life with unimportant and trivial things, then this film may actually have a lot of impact on you because.
Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie’s (Elisabeth Moss) marriage is on the rocks. They consult a therapist to somehow save their marriage. After an unusually heated and damaging session, the therapist suggests a weekend getaway for the couple that he believes will help them reset the reset button. The two decide to take the chance and head for the place. At first, all seems normal, and the two seem to be having an unusually good time. They even make love after a long time, and just when everything seems to be getting a little better, something shocking happens that not only makes the couple lose their minds but also underlines what is lacking in their marriage.
Sophie is more interested in finding answers to the questions that Ethan has never been able to give satisfactory answers to in their relationship. She is also looking to find solace, peace, and happiness in the company of someone that she had been looking for all this while, at the same time knowing fully well that there was something wrong about everything that she was experiencing, and yet she decides to give in to all that she was receiving and isn’t bothered about what the end result of it all would be.
Ethan, on the other hand, is not only exasperated by not being able to convince his wife that what she is experiencing is not real but also living with the fact that someone else is doing exactly what he should be doing to save their marriage. As the film progresses, he not only makes confessions about things that he had done that don’t hold him in good stead but ends up doing more things to Sophie that he regrets as the film inches towards its climax.
‘The One I Love’ is an engaging and intriguing film not because of the out-of-this-world story that it sets out to tell. It is because the film deals with real-world issues and uses its over-the-top elements to only emphasize the engagement and the thrill that it has to offer through these genuine issues. If one looks closely, the odd elements of the film only make their presence felt in the last few minutes of the film. The rest of it is almost like the two individuals of the couple interacting with the mirror images of their counterparts and looking for elements in them that not only answer the questions about them and the state of their relationship that they fail to answer themselves but also to look for reasons to fall in love with each other one more time. While this aspect of the story is truer for Sophie than for Ethan, it exists in both cases. For Ethan, the interactions are more about questioning himself and where did he go wrong in everything. He does get his share of answers, and he doesn’t take them too sportingly leading to more drama.
The performances from Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss are captivating. The film is about 1 hour and 30 minutes long, and the majority of this runtime is spent in dialogues and sequences between Duplass and Moss across three specific setups. Hence, I don’t feel the need to underline the efficiency of their performance and its impact on me that kept me rooted in the narrative for the duration of the runtime. The two characters behave in a manner that not only enhances the tension and conveys the oddity of everything that is on display but their mannerisms and emotions also resonate with the audiences and make them a party to it all.
It is as if when Ethan is pointing out how insane a particular moment in the film is, he is making us a party to it and looking at us for reaffirmation. Similarly, when Moss says something that has the potential of destroying her life with her husband and condemning her to a life of imprisonment and solitude, and yet she seems to be happier than ever before to choose such a life, we as audiences are frustrated and feel like holding her hands and pulling her out of a trance that she has purposefully put herself in around nothing more than a daydream and conjured version of her husband that we know for sure is not real. These aspects of the characters would not have been realized this well and would not have impacted the audience as much as it did had it not been for the performances.
‘The One I Love’ is also very funny. Most of the comedy in the film happens because of the difference of opinion of the protagonists and how subtly they express that through their expressions when at least one of them is being irrational about something that impacts them both. This is one of the hardest bits of comedy to pull off, but the director Charlie McDowell does well to pull off these sequences with relative ease and success.
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‘The One I Love’ transcends the boundaries of conventional storytelling, offering an unconventional and thought-provoking exploration of relationships. The film’s oddity, while initially perplexing, becomes a captivating tool to dissect the intricacies of human connections. Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss deliver stellar performances, navigating the complex emotional landscape of a crumbling marriage with authenticity. The narrative’s blend of mesmerizing tales of understanding, frustration, and surprising revelations propels it beyond the mere confines of a romantic drama. Director Charlie McDowell’s ability to infuse humour into the storyline masterfully captures the subtleties of comedic timing, successfully highlighting the absurdity of irrational moments that impact the couple.
‘The One I Love’ challenges traditional genre boundaries, offering a refreshing take on the complexities of relationships. It engages the audience not only with its peculiar plot but also with the universal questions it poses about love, loss, and the perpetual quest for understanding in companionship. The film is a triumph in its ability to balance the surreal and the relatable, leaving viewers with a resonant, lingering impact that extends well beyond the credits.
Rating: 3/5 (3 out of 5 Stars)
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