Love and the City: "Almost Love" a low-key, nicely acted slice-of-life dramedy


Almost Love (2020)
92 min.
Release Date: April 3, 2020 (Digital & VOD)

The intimately observed, New York-set human stories of Noah Baumbach and Ira Sachs are called to mind in indie dramedy “Almost Love” (known in the UK as “Sell By”). Actor Mike Doyle (2016’s “The Invitation”) makes his proficient writing-directing feature debut with this minor slice of life that revolves around a tight-knit circle of thirtysomething New Yorkers and their romantic foibles. Driven by nice performances and a relaxed, lived-in camaraderie within its ensemble, “Almost Love” is breezy, low-key and appealing. As it goes with any ensemble piece, some characters and subplots are better-developed than others, but the actors' astute character work makes up for any uneven treatment and the film holds an universality about not settling for less than one deserves.

Adam (Scott Evans) is an underappreciated artist who ghostpaints for a successful artist (Patricia Clarkson, in one scene at a gallery). He’s been in a five-year relationship with boyfriend Marklin (Augustus Prew), a notable men’s fashion influencer who tends to unintentionally overshadow Adam, and has cold feet about actually getting married, unlike Adam’s best friend Elizabeth (Kate Walsh), who has been married to her husband for fifteen years. Their single friends have their own issues. Straight-shooter Cammy (Michelle Buteau) is dating Henry (Colin Donnell), who drops a bomb on her—he is currently homeless and living at a shelter—while neurotic Haley (Zoe Chao) is tutoring 17-year-old boy Scott James (Christopher Gray) for his SATs and figuring out what her maternal or romantic feelings toward him mean. Everyone is a little lost in navigating their respective rough patches in life, but at least they can turn to each other.

Sensitive and good-humored, “Almost Love” captures the mundanities of life that can sink a long-term relationship if both partners aren’t putting in the work. Being written and directed by a gay man, Mike Doyle’s film refreshingly never focuses on the sexuality of the couple at its core, normalizing Adam and Marklin who are just as guilty of lacking communication and sometimes making the other feel less than as much as a straight couple. When Adam and Marklin, riding their bikes home after a therapy session, stop for a quick peck and are called out for being gay by a passerby, they proudly laugh it off and keep riding; it sounds like a minor detail but there for a reason. The prime conflicts that arise (Marklin visiting his comatose ex at the hospital, as well as another character facing the devastation of an affair) don't always go where we completely expect but do get wrapped up with a tidy ribbon before officially ending at a blissful wedding.

Scott Evans (brother of Chris, Captain America himself) has an accessible everyman quality to him as Adam, and he shares an ease with Augustus Prew (Netflix’s “Special”), as Marklin, as if they have actual history together (both actors actually co-starred as exes in Hulu's "Into the Dark" anthology installment "Midnight Kiss"). Michelle Buteau (2019’s “Always Be My Maybe”) and Zoe Chao (2020’s “Downhill”) have the broader roles and more amusing, if comparatively slight, subplots as Cammy and Haley, but Buteau has a crack comic timing and spikiness about her, and Chao knows how to play spaciness and keep it endearing. Kate Walsh (2017’s “Girls Trip”) is her likable self and shines in her heart-to-hearts with Evans' Adam as sounding-board friend Elizabeth, but her entire subplot is given a shorthand, Elizabeth's husband (Chaz Lamar Sheperd) never an actual character.

Underwritten in places but always rooted in truth, "Almost Love" does give off the feeling that writer-director Mike Doyle had his heart set on cramming in so much material for his first narrative feature. Amidst all the threads, there's even a serendipitous throughline where Adam keeps hearing an ice cream jingle around the city and then has an encounter with an ice cream vendor who could end up being his 11th-hour savior. These characters and their relationships might have been better served with even more breathing room had the film run longer or been developed as a season-long series rather than a single narrative feature. Criticisms notwithstanding, "Almost Love" is smartly written and thoughtful enough to be a few notches above being merely cute and superficial. One likes spending time with these people, and that feels like enough. 

Grade: B -

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