The Killing of Two Lovers

The Backlot in West Perth hosted the Revelation media preview night with a screening of this starkly muddy film from Robert Machoian. It follows a couple of days in the separation of David (Clayne Crawford) and Nikki (Sepideh Moafi) in a bleak, cold town near some mountains in Utah. 

The sound design is noticeable from the kick-off, with short bangs and slow drum rolls (?) hinting at something off screen, or about to happen. This may have been an attempt to discombobulate the viewer - it worked on me at any rate. It opens with a dude quietly holding a pistol at two people sleeping in a bed. He's clearly in two minds but then the toilet flushes and he scarpers. We soon see this is David, as he runs back to his Dad's house nearby. Here's an example of the functional, almost student-level cinematography that mars the film a bit for me. The camera shakily holds on his back as he runs along an empty road. All the way. It's a style that's repeated throughout, with extreme close-ups in the dark of a car or wonky, near locked-off camerawork in a grubby park. It surely shows the setting as it is, and I guess the lack of beauty, the prosaic reality is something Machoian was striving for, but I thought it cheapened the film.

The story is not without merit, it focuses on an angry man who is able to control his rage, with only a dummy torso bearing the brunt. Nikki and their four kids are never threatened (apart from the opening scene - and she was oblivious to the danger). Nikki herself comes across as the villain, set up as the driver of the separation, the one who has moved on. I wonder how this might have played if the roles were reversed. David does get a bit stalky with new bloke, Derek (Chris Coy), but it all peters out until a surprisingly tense climax involving the three triangular participants. This almost redeemed the film but ultimately, I couldn't get along with it. It's not terrible, and Roly is right that it stays with you, it just left me unimpressed.

The Killing of Two Lovers will be released in cinemas by Pivot Pictures from September 16th (Melbourne, Sydney and the ACT will release once restrictions ease) and streaming services (Fetch, Foxtel Store, Google Play, Telstra, TV Box Office and YouTube) on November 3rd.

See also:

Obviously, Asghar Farhadi's brilliant A Separation (2011), which covers similar ground, and Michael Ritchie's Fletch (1985) was partly set in Utah. But that would be the only similarity.