This is a movie that explores to a certain deep the very unstable circumstances under which a couple can try to experience love, even pretending to have everything in control. In fact, with some less characters it could be a documentary about the making, growth and death of love itself.
It sure has the virtue to take the viewer on an emotional roller-coaster, although it fails to compound more complex scenarios to unveil the crisis that seems inevitable from the very start of the film.
The story begins with the introduction of John Madler, an hedonist painter who can't seem to relate to any woman on a long-term basis. Shortly after wards, he meets Allison McKenzie, a young and beautiful woman who, while being capable of throwing herself to a very enjoyable affair, keeps turning into a fragile-spirited girl looking for self assurance.
True, it appeals to common places all too often, both when it comes to explaining the characters and when the characters themselves open their mouths. If nothing else, it proves to filmmakers that the borderline between verisimilitude and expressing yourself as an author is, at best, unclear.
Personally, I also find it worth of praise that every so often it comes close to turn out really bad and then, it just doesn't.
Performances, on the other hand, are quite convincing, specially Brenda Bakke's, who manages to display a very extended range of emotions. Nick Cassavetes characterization is also remarkable, with less honorific mentions to the rest of the cast.
In my very personal opinion, is worth watching whether you are interested in identifying the constituent elements of a rather simple plot or if -which is more likely- you are just sentimental.
