Cleopatra's Second Husband

Darkly Compelling
This is a fascinating look at the dark turns unhealthy relationships can take. This low budget film, written and directed by Jon Reiss, starts off innocuously enough. Robert (Paul Hipp) and Halle (Bitty Schram) are a rather boring,yuppyish LA couple. Halle is domineering in a whiny sort of way; her husband is submissive in a detached sort of way. This fact does not seem very interesting at the outset, but it sets the stage for the rest of the film's bizarre developments. Paul and Halle go on vacation and entrust their house to the care of another couple, Zach (Boyd Kestner) and Sophie (Radha Mitchell). Those of us who have seen any psychological thrillers know that this is a fatal mistake, but Paul and Halle are preoccupied with their own issues. Theirs is a passionless marriage; Halle regulates their sex life based on her ovulation cycles. Paul, meanwhile, is trying to jumpstart a fledgling career as a photographer. He is also a hypochondriac who constantly downs herbal remedies...

Unexpected, twisted little gem
Full disclosure: I rented this film because a former boyfriend of mine was the director of photography and I was curious to see what he'd been up to. For a low-budget film, it is gorgeously filmed (good job, Matt Faw!) and well acted. Given the title and the word "erotic" on the cover, I was expecting the plot to evolve into a kinky threesome, but instead its twistedness takes a whole different route. It starts out normally enough: a couple who's stressed out from trying to get pregnant takes a vacation and allows another couple they don't really know to house-sit. When they get back, the house-sitters won't leave. The mind-games quickly escalate and eventually turn violent and unexpectedly (but very inventively) sadistic. Not a date movie, but definitely worth watching if you like odd, twisted, offbeat films. (And the director's commentary only added to my appreciation of the cast and crew's achievement.)

Peculiar amalgam of other films
The first half of this film actually works well because the dynamics of the two couples portrayed are sizzling, punchy, and smart. One of them is a yuppie duo made up of a photographer obsessed with somewhat creepy subjects, and his wife who's equally compulsive in her behavior about trying to become pregnant. These two obvious uptighters are paired off against a couple who are the obvious opposite--wild with enormous libidos, selfish, and inconsiderate.

It's when the film progresses to the dynamics of the two men alone that it encounters serious problems. The interaction here is much too forced, contrived; there's a lot of treading water here, but the water is pseudo-water and the treading is thrashing about without a reason. After all, why thrash around in water that's not even water? Without giving away the plot points here, it's just not credible that the dominant one of this male pair would continue to accept the ministrations of the other man after a major problem arises...

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