Married/Unmarried

Two couples, one married and the other not, engage in affairs amongst themselves. Ultimately the process, involving love, jealousy, power, unfaithfulness and gratification, is going to be downhill and destructive before something more positive emerges.

Written and directed by Noli, one suspects Married/Unmarried has origins as a play since many of the scenes involving Paul and Amanda (married), and Danny and Kim (unmarried), seem staged or at least rooted in a parallel universe to one that we would call reality. It is dark, the language vulgar – from the start – designed one suspects to shock – perhaps wanting audiences to be woken out of a lethargy and to take on a cinematic experience that is radically alternative.

The only trouble is that watching it becomes such a desensitizing experience that the overall effect is lost, meaning you soon learn to leave your emotions at door and that done, all that’s left is to wonder what actors like Ben Daniels and Gina Bellman are doing in a film like this and quite how horrible Daniels’ character can get before others decide they’ve had enough of him.

Matt Arnoldi