Parents' Guide to Splitsville

This comedy does OK when it focuses on Carey and Paul's close but volatile friendship, but it doesn't seem to know what to do with the women in their lives, and it loses its way in the final third. Splitsville is the second feature from real-life best pals Covino and Marvin (their debut was The Climb); they share writing duties, and Covino directs. He clearly has a strong sense of rhythm and timing, often letting the camera roam for long takes and ramping up a sense of unease, or cutting from one shot to a matching shot while jumping in time. The movie is more visual, more cinematic, than most of its type. And it's clear that the friends are making a movie for themselves, a movie that amuses them, which—in a time when everything is tested and focus-grouped and marketed—is a rarity.

But the more tangled Splitsville's plot gets, the less the filmmakers seem to be able to hold things together, and the laughs eventually stop coming. Even more uncomfortable is the way the screenplay seems to manipulate the women into reacting to the men, rather than acting in ways that feel organic. Then there's the ending, which suggests a full circle, but ... to what end? Was it all for nothing? Splitsville is just good enough to make you wish that it could have been even better.