While on the road for business, a best-selling novelist (Chris Messina) and a corporate accountant (Marin Ireland) engage in some serious, toss-the-keys-to-the-floor rutting. What seems like a one-night stand slowly develops into something akin to a long-term relationship, albeit one mediated by a revolving artificiality: They lead separate lives with other partners, and only ever meet in hotel rooms. Veteran character-actor-turned-filmmaker Matt Ross goes the improv-heavy Cassavettian route, training his camera on the warts-and-all behavior of two people nested—and trapped—in a room together. Messina and Ireland thrive under that gaze, and dismaying affectations aside—the characters go needlessly unnamed—the movie articulates the enduring allure of a love defined, and heightened, by restrictions.
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