Most of us have hit that point in a relationship where things just feel stale.
People have different ways of dealing with growing apart. Many end the relationship, some opt to get counseling.
Few come up with the solution that writer/director/actor Daryl Wein and co-writer/actress Zoe Lister-Jones did. They decided to break up … for three days a week.
The film is based on this actual expiriment, with Wein and Lister-Jones playing versions of themselves.
It’s one thing to embody a role as an actor in which you are representing another person while infusing your interpretation of that person. I can’t imagine portraying yourself, or someone like yourself, without inhibition or an attempt to color your own actions with best intent.
The two principals in Breaking Upwards do this flawlessly. They’re likable but flawed. They’re smart but vulnerable.
The exploration of life both with and without each other takes a number of twists and turns, some expected, some not. The film doesn’t presume to ask a cosmic question about the meaning of relationships. It simply asks the meaning of one couple’s relationship, but it’s a compelling question because of the depth of the characters.
This has the feel of the kind of movie that Wein and Lister-Jones made using the talents of a lot of their friends … if their friends all happened to be talented actors and filmmakers. Every character seems comfortable within their role and with the players around them.
Julie White, who plays Wein’s mother, brings a new, fresh take to the overbearing Jewish mother role that is anything but stereotypical.
In short, Breaking Upwards is everything that can be good about indie film. It’s smart, funny and engaging while looking at some of the deepest parts of human connection.
| Buy Tickets | |
| Festival & Fair Tickets | |