Splitsville

How often does the best romantic comedy of the year also contain the year’s best fight scene? Probably as often as any romcom starts with a man standing over a dead stranger on the side of the highway, his penis unknowingly dangling from his shorts.

Splitsville is full of surprises. Written by co-stars Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin, and directed by Covino, the duo’s second feature is a screwball sex farce for an age when even the most buttoned-down couples are exploring ‘ethical non-monogamy’. Marvin is a cuddly schlub in the Jason Segel mold. Covino is his wealthier, hairier, more dickish best friend. Both are punching above their weight when it comes to their wives: the former is married to Andor’s Adria Arjona, the latter to Dakota Johnson. In a desperate bid to keep them from coming to their senses, both husbands propose opening their respective marriages — the ramifications of which neither is prepared to deal with.

Of course, movies about normies awkwardly dabbling in polyamory go back at least as far as 1969’s Bob & Carole & Ted & Alice, and there are endless comedies involving dumb guys undone by their own insecurities. What makes Splitsville stand out? Simply put, it’s goddamn hilarious. 

What makes Splitsville stand out? Simply put, it’s goddamn hilarious

With 2019’s The Climb, another film about friends overstepping the boundaries of fidelity, Covino and Marvin placed themselves in the bromantic lineage of Judd Apatow, only with a greater penchant for slapstick violence, absurd non sequiturs and comedy for comedy’s sake. In Splitsville, the density of jokes rivals The Naked Gun. Gags fly from every angle: onscreen, offscreen, in the background, sometimes all at once. The centrepiece fight sequence is a seven-minute, house-destroying brawl that escalates from slaps to wrestling-style powerbombs to makeshift flamethrowers and just gets funnier as it goes. 

Naturally, for a film of Apatowian heritage, the women are badly underwritten, but much like Covino and Marvin’s characters, the actresses overperform with what they’re given. Arjona, in particular, stretches the comedic chops flashed in Hit Man, especially in a showy time-lapse montage exposing herself as a relationship chameleon, shapeshifting from raver to cowgirl to New Age earth-mother with each new date. Johnson, meanwhile, continues to act like a smart-robot whose understanding of human emotions is still in beta mode, but her alluring deadpan manner is well deployed – it’s hard to think of many other actors who’d be as funny casually breaking a vase over somebody’s head.

Is the attractiveness gap in both couples distracting? A bit. But it’s the joke that drives the madness. After all, if you looked and acted like these dudes, and somehow wound up sharing a bed with either of these women, wouldn’t you burn off your best bro’s eyebrows to defend their honour?

In UK and Ireland cinemas Fri Mar 27. Streaming on Hulu in the US.