The One I Love is a romantic drama that debuted on January 21, 2014 at the Sundance Film Festival.
When the show opens, we are introduced to Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie (Elisabeth Moss, Top Of The Lake), who are struggling to keep their marriage afloat. They decide to go see a marriage therapist (Ted Danson).
Looking back to the time when Ethan and Sophie first meet it appears as if they fell madly in love suddenly, got married, and are now newlyweds in marriage counseling trying to save their marriage.
The therapist realizes that counseling is not working for them and decides to send them to a private resort, which is for troubled couples. When they first arrive at the main house, they decide to go over to the guest house, but instead Ethan smokes some weed then suddenly falls to sleep. When Sophie arrives back to the main house, she begins to ask Ethan how he got back to the main house faster than she did, when she left before him. He denies being at the guest house and having sex with Sophie.
At this time, they begin to experience some strange happenings and everything starts to go awry. Ethan goes into the guest house, while Sophie waits outside for him. Once inside the house, he meets a fantasy Sophie, who asks him if he wants some breakfast. He later returns back outside, where Sophie is waiting for him. He explains to her that she was inside the house, but she is also outside. They now know that they have a fantasy, look-a-like and decide to create a stratagem.
They agree to only stay in the guest house for fifteen minutes at a time and be open with each other about everything that happens, while they are there. They also made a pact to not have sex with their fantasy partner. Ethan begins to time Sophie, while she is in the guest and becomes upset that she breaks her promise by staying over her time allowance. She catches him spying on her and runs out of the house to confront him about it.
Ethan isn’t so easy to be persuaded by the fantasy Sophie and is not taken by her, but Sophie has a very different feeling toward Fantasy Ethan. One night Ethan wakes up to find that Sophie is not in the bed; he goes over to the guest house and sees her with Fantasy Ethan through the window. He tries to get in, but the doors are locked preventing him from doing so. Ethan asks her what she sees in Fantasy Ethan and she tells him that he is funny, happy, and romantic. She also admits that he doesn’t wear glasses and his hair is sort of unkempt.
Sophie asks Fantasy Ethan why he cheated on her. He responded by saying that he was very insecure in their relationship and it was his way of lashing out at her. He also thanked her for standing by him and going to marriage counseling. Ethan pretends to go to the grocery store, while Sophie has sex with Fantasy Ethan. Ethan doesn’t connect with Fantasy Sophie instead he insults her by calling her a robot and accuses Fantasy Ethan of trying to take Sophie away from him. She in turn tells Ethan that he has been loosing Sophie for quite some time. It is obvious that Ethan is jealous of Fantasy Ethan and Sophie’s relationship and decides to confront them about it.
Both couples get together to have dinner and play cards, but the evening does not turn out as expected. Fantasy Ethan explains cosmic occurrences to everyone by using an aardvark as an example. He goes on to explain that if you lock an aardvark in a dark overnight and go in the next morning to turn the lights on, he thinks it is magical because he sees some amazing things, which he was unable to see when the lights where off.
Fantasy Sophie reveals to Ethan that this visit to the resort was not meant to repair his and Sophie’s relationship, but was meant to help her get over him. She had somehow fell in love with Fantasy Ethan, which was definitely not supposed to happen.
Will Ethan be able to convince Sophie into leaving the resort and Fantasy Ethan behind or will he be forced to return home, without her?
Review
The One I Love is definitely a confusing love story that will leave you guessing throughout and all the to the very end. Ethan seems to care less about changing and reinventing the marriage, while Sophie is more adamant about making their relationship work and wants desperately to fall in love with Ethan all over again. The script is written in a way that offers a little romance and comedy amid a lot of weird and dark scenes. I have been a fan of Elisabeth Moss ever since I watched her amazing performance in Top Of The Lake and she did not fail to impress me again.
Kudos to the director and editor for putting this amazing film together because only a genuis could pull it off. Although, I will say that the ending is quite strange and sort of disappointing in a way, but then again it does fit into the weirdness that revolves around this movie. The pace is set very well except there are a few scenes that appear to be repeating themselves, but all in all I feel that it deserves a 7.5 out of 10.
Jay Skelton is a fan of all television shows and movies. He tries his best to keep up with the latest foreign television shows and movies. Jay loves skinny dipping in the dark too.
