Splitsville

Writer-director-star Michael Angelo Covino and his co-screenwriter and co-star Kyle Marvin have now made a second movie about a man who has sex with his friend’s romantic partner. In their last film, “The Climb,” a character confesses he has slept with his friend’s fiancée. In “Splitsville,” Carey (Covino) confesses he has slept with his friend’s wife. In both films, the focus is on the impact this has on the friendship of the two men, and it is mostly played for goofy comedy based on the cluelessness of the characters in various categories of adulting.

Carey and Ashley (Adria Arjona), his wife of 14 months, are driving to the beach house owned by Paul (Marvin) and his wife, Julie (Dakota Johnson). They are happily singing along to “What a Fool Believes” by the Doobie Brothers when they witness a terrible accident. This prompts Ashley to reach for a letter she has been working on (as she reads it aloud, she has to correct herself from the text’s “13 months”) telling Carey she wants a divorce and that she has repeatedly been unfaithful.

He is devastated. Paul and Julie do their best to comfort him. And they tell him they have an open marriage and allow each other to have sex with anyone they want, and Paul casually says he’d even be all right with it if Carey and Julie had sex. The next night, when Paul is away, Carey and Julie do. The next morning, Carey confesses and Paul is not all right with it. They get into a ridiculously chaotic scuffle, getting hurt and causing a lot of damage in the house.

Like the earlier film, “Splitsville” separates its chapters with mildly arch title cards, which occur over some indeterminate but apparently years-long period. Russ (Simon Webster), the son of Paul and Julie and a student at the private school where Casey is a PE teacher, does not get any older during this period, but this is not a movie where details like this matter. It’s more a “you know what would be funny?” kind of film, sketchy in both senses of the word.

Casey and Paul have been friends since childhood apparently out of inertia and the inability to make any other friends. Casey is good-hearted, considerate, honorable, and kind to a fault. Paul is none of those things. When Russ gets in trouble, his father tells him to lie and Casey advises him to tell the truth, then lies himself to take the blame. A lot of the humor in the film comes from the oddball slacker quality of the two leads. One example is that fight scene, which goes from slaps to low-level martial arts to a pause to rescue Russ’ fish after they crash the tank. They are very low key about situations most people would consider very high-intensity. The female characters are under-written, really there just to provide something for the men to react to.

Carey persuades Ashley not to get divorced, but continue to live together, with him sleeping on the sofa, she in the bed with a series of sexual partners. Casey is so agreeable, he invites them all to stay on in the house, scheduling movie nights (“Lorenzo’s Oil” is popular). While Ashley is a life coach and has a life coach of her own, it is Casey who is becoming something of a mentor to the discarded lovers. There are a bunch of very funny situations and comments. It just does not amount to much.

Parents should know that this film includes very strong language, explicit sexual references and non-explicit situations, graphic nudity, drinking, adultery, crimes, bullying, and adult themes.

Family discussion: What will happen to the couples after the movie? If you wrote a script with your best friend, what would it be about?

If you like this, try: “The Climb” and “Oh, Hello”