Thing have gotten to this with Annie and Darren: Here they are, two attractive people in the prime of their sexual existence, married for a little while, in bed together. …
Doing the crossword puzzle.
It’s situations like this that have led these two to consider an experiment. And from the title of the film in which they appear, “The Freebie,” you can probably guess what lies on the horizon.
What harm could possibly come from grown people deciding to give each other a night off from the fidelity vow? In fact, they tell each other with great, liberated earnestness, taking a one-night lover might actually improve their own sex life, which hasn’t exactly been going like a house afire lately.
Annie and Darren are played by Katie Aselton and Dax Shepard; she also directed the movie. If the improvisatory, searching style seems familiar, it may be because Aselton’s real-life husband, Mark Duplass, is also an actor-filmmaker who works in a similar style (he starred with her in “The Puffy Chair,” and on his own in “Humpday”).
The movie is arranged around a few scenes of set-up, then the night in question — with Annie and Darren setting out in their separate attempts at liaisons — and then a bitter aftermath.
There are several points we’re uncertain about in all this, including how far the one-night stands go. One curious note is that the movie tends to come alive when husband and wife are out on their separate flirtations (she meets a bartender, he goes out with the cute barista at his local coffeeshop).
The consequences of the freebie night are tough on both people. The film lets you decide what might happen later, although it reminds us awfully frequently that almost everybody around thinks the one-night-off agreement was a really stupid idea.
Watching these scenes, though, I had to wonder whether it was really any worse than the glib, siblinglike relationship between the two depicted in the early scenes.
“The Freebie” has some good scenes, and both Aselton and Shepard (“When in Rome”) find their share of authentic, vulnerable moments.
Because this style of moviemaking tends to make its point and then meander for a while, the film has a tough time keeping its through-line. I enjoyed its intentionally modest achievements, but occasionally yearned for a snappy, tightly scripted scene, as old-fashioned as that might sound.
“The Freebie”
“Puffy Chair” star Katie Aselton directs and stars in this improvisatory comedy about a cooled-off married couple who decide to give each other a night off from the fidelity vow, in hopes of sparking their marriage. Aselton and Dax Shepard definitely have some authentic moments, but the film struggles to maintain its through-line.
Rated: R for language, subject matter
Showing: Varsity
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