Always

This is not only the story of the break-up of director Jaglom's marriage, it's also an undisguised attempt to put it back together again. Using the camera as a kind of confessional, he begins by telling how his ex-wife Townsend left him. Two years later, they meet on the eve of their divorce, and chew over what went wrong as friends arrive for a Fourth of July party. He plays himself, Townsend plays herself, and most of the cast are their real-life friends. Slow to start, and intermittently tedious until the house guests begin to arrive, the film is an honest look at a particular kind of contemporary Califorian relationship. Audiences will have no problem relating to the universal desire for love and affection, nor in identifying with Jaglom's predicament. What they might find difficult is actually liking any of the characters involved.