Ashley (Adria Arjona) asks Carey (cowriter Kyle Marvin) for a divorce, so Carey runs to his best friend, Paul (cowriter and director Michael Angelo Covino), at his weekend home in the Hamptons and discovers the secret to the health of his marriage: an open relationship. When Carey sleeps with Paul’s wife, Julie (Dakota Johnson), nickname Jules, it jeopardizes their friendship and Paul’s marriage. Will these crazy kids make it work? If you are tired of films with super-hot wives and normal guys, don’t worry. Covino and Marvin are also tall and have good personalities. “Splitsville” (2025) is just pure, uncut comedy.
No sophomore slump for Covino and Marvin. If you had told me that the guys who made “The Climb” (2020) would make the definitive, daring remarriage comedy for the twenty-first century, I would have been skeptical, but by George, they’ve done it. Their work has matured and gotten better as they explore the concept of marriage, friendship and community built on a foundation of different types of unconditional love. It is a provocative concept that sounds like an impossible trick to pull off, but they do, which is almost an impossible feat considering it is in theaters during the heyday of Reddit AITA posts where the scenario often begins with an open marriage. How do you make adulterers loveable in the US where bodies are taboo unless they are strewn with bullets? After all, the primary audience is not French.
Well, start by shooting in Montreal, Canada. No, that architectural wonder on the water is not on Long Island Sound, which is where the first of seven acts unfolds. It is such an idyllic setting. A planned couples’ weekend gone awry offers a chance to see the individual dynamics. Carey drives a vintage station wagon whereas Paul is a big shot real estate developer who counts the cost, but money has not changed their friendship at all. They are unusually close. Paul volunteers then checks Carey for ticks while Carey is showering. There is a lot of male nudity and shower scenes, but it all seems Edenic, not sordid, especially since there is not as much simulated sex scenes as would be expected considering the title. The women make the first move and stay clothed though they are sexual beings. It is such a countercultural image, especially considering that Julie is also a mother to Russ (Simon Webster), who seems to take after his father.
“Splitsville” strongly implies that Julie and Carey formed their own relationship because Carey works as a teacher at Russ’ school, the fictional Dirby School. In one scene, Carey acts as if he is Russ’ dad to protect Paul’s family from an irate neighbor. Carey’s biological clock is ticking so while Paul’s away, he acts like a cool uncle/father figure. Julie is just as comfortable with Carey as Paul though maybe more so because Paul goes away for business more than he hangs out with his family. At one point, sparks literally fly. Well, they are fireworks that the kid sets them off in front the house, but Covino has a lot of visual underscores in the film. In one amusement park scene, the movie title appears at a banana stand. When Carey returns home to Ashley, he comes up with an ingenuous living arrangement to ensure that he stays in her life. In Carey and Ashleys living room, a decorative neon sign that is always on declares, “We Are Open.” Guess what that really means. Ashley tests Carey’s resolve, and Carey stands firm.
Arjona plays Ashley like a bit of a goofball who also knows that she is a smokeshow and is dying to do a prat fall, but because of decorum settles on compulsively wanting to read letters that are always at her fingertips regardless of the occasion but is never shown writing, which somehow makes it funnier. She gets the least amount of screentime. In contrast, Johnson plays Julie as more self-possessed, unflappable but also frustrated. Basically, everyone but Carey is playing more sophisticated and cooler than they are, but they are in a relationship with the naïve Carey for a reason. Carey, in turn, tries to imitate their laissez faire attitude.
Covino is a good director. Watching “Splitsville” is as if you are watching amazing dance choreography, and the camera is one of the dancers without getting disoriented and confused. One sequence is a time lapse transition showing the array of people Ashley is dating, and Carey’s relationship with her current and discarded lovers until it reaches absurd lengths. When Carey is serving as the school’s traffic monitor, it feels like a scene out of a musical, especially as the sun streams down, or “500 Days of Summer” (2009). Covino also uses the Fred Astaire approach to filming the fight choreography. The camera stays in one place and captures the entire space so the bodies in motion are not chopped into fragments but can be appreciated as a whole as Paul attacks and Carey defends himself. It was more satisfying than anything in “A Working Man” (2025), and Covino and Marvin did their own stunts, which makes it more impressive. The editing is not too shabby either as a roller coaster ride becomes a moment of hilarious pathos while everyone else is having a blast, and the scene should not be funny because of what is happening. It also does not hurt that Carey is styled like “Where’s Waldo?” without the bobble hat.
See “Splitsville” in a crowded theater. It is so rare to have a movie that elicits actual laughter, and like “The Naked Gun” (2025), the jokes are so plentiful that while you are laughing, you are probably missing another one. The sight gags are incisive and sidesplitting, especially at transitions. Paul, who pretends that he can handle anything, proves in the next chapter that he absolutely cannot. When Paul and Julie meet with Dr. Ott (Tyrone Benskin), check out the paintings on the wall. There are some long Robert Altman, no cuts scenes, and you must watch what each character is doing to appreciate the long road to the gag and appreciate the payoff. In the birthday party scene, watch Jackson (Charlie Gillespie). While that denouement features the resolution for the four main characters, it is also a happy ending for him and his search for his raison d’etre. Even Russ gets his time in the sun as the next chapter continuing the legacy of friendship. Hell, Julie’s profession references kintsugi as a metaphor for the process that all the characters went through as they braved the storm of their relationships.
“Splitsville” is a full circle, satisfying symmetrical movie. Lots of movies like “You Me & Her” (2023) try to be provocative mistakenly thinking that unconventional sexual relationships are a great substitute for substance. This movie works because there is substance while being entertaining, generating laughs nonstop and offering a more incisive, realistic look at romantic relationships than “Materialists” (2025) did.
