Splitsville: The romcom chucking a grenade into domestic bliss

The last time we saw Dakota Johnson on the big screen was in Materialists, where she played a data-driven matchmaker for the monied Manhattan set. Johnson’s detached professional soon found herself caught up in a love triangle with a debonair billionaire (Pedro Pascal) and her likeable but flat-broke ex (Chris Evans). While Materialists was more relationship drama than romcom, its cutting observations on 21st century dating etiquette gave it a cosmopolitan charm. 

In Johnson’s new film Splitsville, the tricky matchmaking part seems to be over. Her character Julie is a hippyish potter married to intense property developer Paul (Michael Angelo Covino). The couple have a young son and a lifestyle affluent enough that they own a swanky beach house with understated but wildly expensive furniture pieces.

Paul’s childhood friend Carey (Kyle Marvin) is a few rungs lower on the financial ladder – he works as a gym teacher at a posh private school – but his sweet nature has seen him punching above his weight romantically. He has been married for 14 happy months to luminous life coach Ashley (Adria Arjona, who stood out in the sprawling ensemble of Andor as firecracker freedom fighter Bix). 

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So Splitsville begins where a lot of romcoms end, with its quartet of characters apparently coupled up and loved up. But it wastes little time chucking a grenade into the domestic bliss. En route to Julie and Paul’s beach house, Carey and Ashley have a near-miss on the road that brings everything to a head. Ashley wants to explore her sexuality and has already been unfaithful.

She has drafted a letter explaining why they should get divorced. Carey responds to this earth-shattering news with frankly relatable immaturity: he lunges out of the car door and runs away. If he doesn’t hear the whole letter, maybe they can stay married? 

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When he turns up exhausted and bedraggled on their doorstep, Julie and Paul are sympathetic to Carey’s plight. But the couple also seem a little smug about how they have pre-empted any relationship wobbles. Julie and Paul are “open”, so if one of them has an affair it’s no big deal. It all sounds terribly modern and mature.

But when the dissatisfied Julie and the rudderless Carey sleep together, Paul does not react like the “self-realised individual” he claims to be. The confrontation between Carey and Paul is the moment I fell in love with Splitsville. 

Their argument rapidly escalates into a physical fight that becomes an ex-tended, house-trashing melee. Marvin and Covino, who co-wrote the film (Covino also directs) are obviously not martial artists. But their characters have clearly watched a few action movies: seeing these amateurs attempt audacious John Wick-style combat moves but fail miserably is hilarious, especially as the brawl keeps going to the point of exhaustion and beyond. 

After that crisis point, both marriages seem damaged beyond repair. But life goes on. Ashley really throws herself into the dating scene and one of the best running jokes is how Carey – clinging to the idea that being “open” might save their relationship – gets along swimmingly with her conga-line of new partners.

The now-obvious fault lines in Julie and Paul’s marriage are mirrored by cracks in their finances. Things come to a farcical head at a chaotic birthday party for their son, where Nicholas Braun from Succession has an enjoyably squirmy cameo as Ashley’s latest paramour, a self-regarding but insecure mind-reader. 

So is Splitsville a romcom? By fracturing its couples and flirting with various other potential permutations, it is certainly a sharply written comedy with romance on its mind. But the unexpected raunchiness and physical slapstick could easily have seemed over the top or distracting.

That’s what makes the casting of Johnson – an actor who can be so deadpan you are often left wondering if she is in on the joke – such a masterstroke. She brings a natural screen sophistication that amplifies the film’s luxurious sheen, which makes its spirit of sarcastic, silly and sometimes deeply heartfelt humour even more of a delight.

Splitsville is in cinemas from 27 March 

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