The Freebie

Advertised as "A one night experiment in infidelity", The Freebie starts, progresses, and ends in such a strange independent state that when it's over you're like "what just happened?" It's a humble film that was released in September of 2010. If it hadn't been for the recently canned radio show DreX in the Morning, I probably would've never heard of this film. Good or bad I'm still debating.

The film is very "silent" if that makes any sense. The movie seems to be like a little kid daring to take his first step. He never really gets off his hands and knees and finally gets on his feet. He just crawls for a while hoping to gain some notice. No scenes in The Freebie stand out, and the dialog is the only thing this film has really going for it. It's a little dry, and very independently shot. But that's the rewarding part about this. Me and some other girl could've probably made this film. That makes it easy to relate to since the characters are very comparable. So this is definitely a step in the right direction.

Darren and Annie (Sheppard and Aselton) are a couple that is struggling to get the spice back into the relationship. To prove their still "cool" and "hip" both decide to give each other a night off of marriage, and have a rules free evening. Why couples are stupid enough to do that, no idea, but this means that both of them can do whatever they please as long as they go back to their marriage duty the next day. After a while, Darren makes note of Annie's awkward behavior, and her arrival at home at 6 AM. That's when they both figure out they've made a big mistake.

Like I said, The Freebie is as almost as if nothing happened. Even the fights both Sheppard and Aselton have aren't as entertaining as they could be. It is amusing seeing Dax in a straight edge, serious film role after watching something as farce as Without a Paddle, but there isn't a whole lot new or amusing. The effort is here, but the execution is very lukewarm.

One last random fact that I discovered is that Joshua Leonard of The Blair Witch Project actually makes an appearance in the film. I think I'd rather see him being hunted by an invisible urban legend than being the victim to a ho-hum rom com.

Starring: Dax Sheppard and Katie Astelon. Directed by: Katie Astelon.