Almost love – Cinema Journal

Finding the perfect date and a (seemingly) perfect relationship in New York always proves to be an almost impossible task. almost love is a flawed but warm film about a fun group of friends.

Adam (Scott Evans) and Marklin (Augustus Prew), in their thirties, have been together for five years. Incredibly tall but also inspiring, reunite with their single friends Cammy (Michelle Buteau) and Haley (Zoë Chao).

Cammy has been in a desperate love situation for years and is currently dating the insufferable Henry (Colin Donnell), who has a terrible secret. Haley, in turn, contemplates an affair with Scott (Christopher Gray), a 17-year-old teenager whom she tutors.

Time and time again, films and series show the dating hell that is New York – see also, for example Girls (2012-2017) and High maintenance (2016-2020). Yet Adam and Markling aren’t the only exceptions to this relationship rule. Marklin’s sister, Elizabeth (Kate Walsh), has been with Damon (Chaz Lamar Shepherd) for nearly fifteen years.

It is therefore possible. Miracles exist. But then you have to believe in the salubrity of the monogamous relationship, seems filmmaker Mike Doyle (best known as an actor in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) set up. It is the form of relationship in almost love presented as the greater good. Although you can also see the film as an example of the human search for security.

Incidentally, the first cracks in the relationship firmaments soon appear in the film – Mike and Marklin are in a rut. surprise feather: the perfect relationship does not exist. almost love depends on open doors anyway. For example, Marklin is a painter who does work for a well-known artist. He is therefore in fact a charlatan who deceives the world, and especially himself. Just like Marklin sometimes puts his head in the sand in his relationship with Adam. Doyle is not one of deep metaphors, that’s clear.

Is it bad? No. almost love is also a candid portrait of a group of New Yorkers. Without getting too melodramatic, Doyle shows how life sometimes, even during and after tragedies, just reverberates. One wonders if it was his intention to make a meandering film, as some scenes feel contrived and a bit rickety. For example, Doyle struggles to introduce his characters at the beginning of the film and as a viewer you think: what exactly is this?

But for those who take this relative chaos for granted, the film is like a river that invites you to float in it. A film full of flaws that nonetheless remains. A pure guilty pleasure.