★★★ (3 out of 4)
It’s ironic that this bruised romcom about two marriages about to crack, hence the title “Splitsville,” comes from two dudes whose friendship and creative partnership seem built to last. I’m talking about Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin. They acted in a commercial together 15 years ago and decided to write, produce and act in 2019’s “The Climb,” the bike bromance comedy that Covino directed. That worked out. Stream it, and I think you’ll agree.
Now Covino and Marvin are back in business with “Splitsville,” another winner with Covino directing from a script they constructed together. In a movie about breakups, these two keep fixating on things that hold couples together. It’s mostly the sex that gets in the way.
'Splitsville' does more than entertain; it sticks with you.
“Splitsville” begins with four people in tune, though the car singing between two of them is painful. Marvin plays Carey. He and wife Ashley (Adria Arjona, so good in “Hit Man” with Glen Powell), have been married for just over a year. Now they’re on the road to visit his rich friend Paul (Covino) and his wife Julie (Dakota Johnson), who have a young son, Russ (Simon Webster), and an open marriage.
On the way, Carey and Ashley encounter a freak road accident that shakes them up. Suddenly liberated, Ashley tells Carey that she’s been unfaithful. Way more than once. In a panic, he rolls out of the car and starts running until he winds up on the lawn of Paul and Julie. Eventually he and Julie fall into bed and the game of musical sheets continues until it comes full circle.
You really don’t need to know more than this to fully enjoy the verbal and physical surprises that Covino and Marvin spring with such beguiling eccentricity. The gliding camera can stop short to watch Carey sit on a couch to commiserate with Ashley’s growing band of rejected lovers. Or Covino and Marvin can stage a 10-minute, knock-down, drag-out fight between themselves that wouldn’t be out of place in a Marx Brothers farce.
Kudos as well to the ladies of the ensemble. Arjona has a fireball charm that pulls you in. And Johnson, too often stuck in roles that don’t require more than her unruffled beauty, seizes a chance to show genuine vulnerability and pain, as she did in the underrated “Am I OK?”
Every member of the cast shines, from Charlie Gillespie as a hottie bartender to “Succession” icon Nicholas Braun as a trickster mentalist. But “Splitsville” owes its distinct style and precision timing to Covino and Marvin, best friends who have crafted every detail to fit the total picture. “Splitsville” does more than entertain; it sticks with you.