Married/Unmarried

This unsettling film has as its central theme that monogamy is somewhat cancerous, though not as cancerous as the deeply unpleasant characters who share this view. Set within color-coded interiors, very striking if a little garish, the film unfolds to reveal each character more deviant than the last and the whole married/unmarried combo-interaction between the four friends seems to fuse into one giant amoral heap that leaves the viewer numb and about as unromantic as one can feel! However, there is something extremely gripping about the whole experience, the brutality of the language, the bravery of the performance and possibly the sheer bravado of the director to make such a hateful film. A previous reviewer hailed the film misogynistic - which one character certainly is - but then proceeds not to comment on the actresses performances in the film but indeed praise their 'nipples' instead. And he calls the FILM misogynistic!!! Idiot! Not for everyone, clearly, but an unsettling alternative to the relationship drama.

A simplistic melding of Ingmar Bergman, Eugene O'Neill, and Radley Metzger by a 16 year old devoted to Japanese animé would bring forth a better script than this pseudo artsy piece of junk.

A major problem with this film, which runs 86 minutes, is that it is 85 minutes too long. It is true that both Gina Bellman's and Kristen McMenamy's nipples are very pretty. But that they are not enough to sustain this poor man's Peter Greenway is readily apparent.

Derivative. Pedantic. Artless. What more can you say about such a dreary film. What it lacks in originality it makes up in...no, it doesn't make up in anything.

If you enjoy good cinema, you won't enjoy this.

A quartet of self-absorbed yuppies, surrounded by impeccable decor but with their souls in a sewer, seem to have nothing better to do than to analyze themselves and each other into very negative states of destruction. Decadence and cynicism abound, and the viewer is gradually submerged into such bleak ugliness that it is almost stifling trying to find one positive note. The actors all play their parts very well, but do real people behave in this way? Ben Daniel's character is the most repugnant, perverted misogynistic sadist I've ever seen on film, definitely aberrant, abnormal. The women characters are pitiful, equally repulsive. Paolo Seganti's uncertain husband is the only one with any credibility...but he seems emotionally dead after his marriage is destroyed. Altogether, a distasteful enterprise.

A similar, but more effective study of amoral wealthy lifestyles, and ambivalent sexuality leading to tragedy is "Llanto de la Tortuga" which I much prefer over this one. It doesn't leave you with such a taste of bile in your mouth.

This film has the raw quality of a first feature-length movie by a new director. There are some interesting and revealing moments, but an aura of sensation and artistic pretense spoils the realistic timbre of the intriguing relationships between the characters, also contributing to a loss of their three-dimensionality. Whatever its faults, this film will provoke strong reactions in its viewers; this doesn't necessarily make for a good film, but it shows promise in the director's skill. I should mention that I personally found none of the characters sympathetic, and from this point of view the film strikes me as a study in human duplicity. The ending, however, suggests hope in what is otherwise a very brutal and dark portrayal of human relationships.

This is a unique film. I cannot compare it to anything I have seen before. The director's stark words and powerful images leave an indelible mark. The acting is excellent and shows true courage as there is much nudity and sexual abuse. Mark Ryder's music complements the disturbing images superbly and shows that he is one of the very best in the business. This is a film to see.