Splitsville Review: 4 People, Zero Growth
Splitsville tries to present itself as a modern look at complicated relationships, wrapped inside a dark comedy shell. The ambition is clear from the beginning. It wants to feel bold, contemporary and brutally honest about how adults navigate love when they convince themselves they are progressive. What it ends up becoming is a messy portrait of four people who never stop running from their own flaws. The concept is interesting enough to keep you engaged, but the emotional payoff never arrives.
A Story That Starts With Chaos and Keeps Digging Deeper
The film revolves around two couples who treat communication like a foreign language. Julie (Dakota Johnson) and Paul (Michael Angelo Covino), introduce themselves as the confident open-marriage couple who believe they have unlocked some higher emotional IQ. Their friends Carey (Kyle Marvin) and Ashley (Adria Arjona), drift into their world after Ashley asks for a divorce. What follows is a chain of impulsive choices that slowly reveal how none of these people are stable enough to handle the freedom they pretend to have.
The moments are entertaining in a strange way. The chaos keeps evolving, and the movie keeps leaning into the absurdity of their decisions. It is never boring, but it also never deepens the message it wants to deliver. The characters jump from one emotional mess to another, and the film seems satisfied with the noise rather than the meaning.
People Who Confuse Self-Discovery With Self-Destruction
The strongest issue with Splitsville is that the characters rarely feel grounded. They talk like people who have read too many self-help articles and then twisted those ideas to justify their bad impulses. Julie moves between guilt and affection without ever landing in a place of honesty. Paul masks insecurity with confidence and ends up creating a dynamic neither he nor Julie actually wants. Carey looks for comfort in places that only make him more confused. Ashley fills the silence with new partners while pretending it is empowerment.
None of these characters seem to know what they want. That can be fine if the film is building toward a revelation, but Splitsville never gives them one. It circles back to where it started, almost as if proving that no matter how much they talk about growth, they have none.
Humour That Stays Steady but Emotion That Never Shows Up
The dark comedy tone remains consistent. Some of the arguments and awkward confrontations are genuinely funny because of how sincerely wrong everyone is. For a while that works. You laugh at how dramatic these people are about the smallest things. Eventually the humour hits a ceiling. The film keeps repeating the same pattern of chaos without giving the audience a new emotional layer to sit with.
Dark comedy survives best when it finds depth beneath the absurdity. Splitsville stays stuck on the surface. The jokes remain, but the heart never arrives.
A Look at Modern Relationships That Feels More Cynical Than Insightful
The movie clearly wants to explore the way people use new labels to justify old insecurities. Open relationships, emotional freedom, personal reinvention, unconventional family structures. These are all interesting themes and could easily support a sharp story. Splitsville touches all of them but never sits still long enough to say anything meaningful. It ends up feeling like a cynical snapshot of modern love rather than an exploration of it.
Maybe that is the point. Maybe the film wants to show how many people drift through relationships without learning from their mistakes. If that was the goal, it succeeds. If the goal was to make you care about these characters, it misses.
Final Thoughts: A Dark Comedy With Big Ambition but Shaky Execution
Splitsville is not a bad idea but it is just a film that refuses to dig into the emotional truth beneath its own concept. The cast is strong and the humour works often enough. The problem is that the characters stay hollow. Their actions feel exaggerated, and the lessons they “learn” feel temporary, and the entire story loops back to the same dysfunction it started with. It might reflect a part of modern dating culture, but it does not make for a satisfying watch as the payoff never arrives.
Rating:
I give Splitsville 2.5 out of 5 stars. Ambitious, funny in parts, but too shallow to leave a lasting impression.
Splitsville might not land every idea it reaches for, but it leaves enough chaos on the table to spark a conversation. I am curious what you thought of the film and whether the characters worked for you at all. Drop your thoughts in the comments.
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