That is, until an opportunity arises for him to sleep with Julie, who confesses that she’s never actually taken advantage of her laissez-faire sexual arrangement. This is when the cracks begin to show in this supposedly enlightened couple’s relationship, putting Carey in the unfortunate (yet highly entertaining) position of maneuvering both his dissolving marriage and that of Paul and Julie. Despite seeing his friend’s distressing reaction to an extramarital incident, Carey decides that an open relationship might be the only thing capable of saving his marriage with Ashley, whose main gripe is that she wants to date other people. So begins an intriguing chapter that finds Carey and Ashley accommodating a revolving door of current and former lovers in their cramped studio apartment. It’s unclear who truly possesses the upper-hand: Ashley, who flaunts her sexy (yet short-lived) trysts, or Carey, who just as seamlessly befriends these soon-to-be-dejected schmucks, forming an exclusive club of former dates that are practically headquartered in the apartment.
These subtle games only grow in scope as Splitsville unfolds, played between former and current paramours as much as between Carey and Paul. Easily the best scene in the film—and perhaps its central thesis—is an extended combat scene between the two best friends that essentially distills their ever-shifting power dynamic, revealing underlying insecurities regarding their respective relationships with masculinity. To describe this sequence in specific detail would slacken the tension it so effectively garners, but trust that not an inch of an ultra-modern Hamptons estate goes undisturbed by their encounter. Marvin is particularly adept at utilizing his body (and I do mean his entire body) to yield a kinetic comedic performance, whether it be an inopportune theme park incident or simply directing drop-off traffic at the school where he teaches gym. In this sense, Aronja is a fantastic match (fans of Hit Man are already well aware of her ability to blend the silly and sexy), unafraid to tackle physical gags and emotional intensity with whip-crack precision.
Covino and Johnson’s chemistry isn’t lacking, per se, but their arc becomes far too embroiled in the dissolution of their marriage and the effect this has on their son (Simon Webster), already a troublemaker who begins to act out in more concerning ways. This is when Splitsville becomes more absorbed in plotlines about bankruptcy and interpersonal betrayal, straying from its initial focus on the individual neuroses that spring from attempting to adapt to someone else’s desires rather than understanding and committing to one’s own. Indeed, the film is composed of chapters that reference several legal clauses inherent to divorce papers (a similar structure to The Climb), meaning that Corvino and Marvin clearly intended to also delve into the relevant particularities of such an ordeal. There are far more films about divorce than there are lampoons of 21st-century sexual liberties, so the observations made here tend to be a tad less compelling. Thankfully, though, the film climaxes with several spinning plates that crash in a delightful crescendo, with Nicolas Braun appearing as a mentalist who’s capable of conjuring anything except the time of day from one of his audience members.
Compared to Johnson’s other rom-com showing this summer, Materialists, Splitsville is a much more successful examination of modern love and its limitations. Even Johnson’s character is given more dimension here, the tug between two men and the potential future they promise her a much more interesting exercise than Celine Song’s conventional rich man/poor man dichotomy. In a bit of a ham-fisted metaphor, Julie specializes in kintsugi, a Japanese artform that utilizes gold-infused lacquer to repair cracked pottery projects, making broken things even more beautiful than when they were first crafted. But the clunkiness of this device feels at home in Covino and Marvin’s story: In our real-life relationships, ensuring that no one has to read between the lines typically yields a more perfect union.
Director: Michael Angelo Covino
Writer: Michael Angelo Covino, Kyle Marvin
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Adria Arjona, Kyle Marvin, Michael Angelo Covino, Nicholas Braun, David Castañeda, O-T Fagbenle, Charlie Gillespie, Simon Webster
Release Date: August 22, 2025
