Swinging with the Finkels (2011)
Directed by Jonathan Newman
Written by Jonathan Newman
Starring Martin Freeman, Mandy Moore, Jonathan Silverman, Melissa George
Release Date August 26th, 2011
Published September 15th, 2011
"Swinging with the Finkels" is an odd sort of romantic comedy. The story of a bored married couple who consider Swinging, swapping partners with another married couple, as a way to spice up their spice-free marriage; "Swinging with the Finkels" has moments that are insightful and cute thanks to its pair of appealing leads.
Martin Freeman and Mandy Moore are the titular Finkels, Alvin and Ellie. College sweethearts, Alvin and Ellie have stopped being intimate with one another and Alvin is ready to chalk it up to the typicality of being married for so long. Since the two don't communicate well their uncoordinated attempts to rebuild intimacy fail quite comically.
Finally, after witnessing the seeming end of the marriage of their closest friends, played by Jonathan Silverman and Melissa George, Alvin and Ellie make one last desperate attempt to change their marriage; swinging. An ad on a website brings a very nice couple to Alvin and Ellie's flat and the night seems to go as planned.
Whether or not the swing is the thing to get Alvin and Ellie going again I will leave you to discover. What is unique about writer-director Jonathan Newman's approach to swinging is how anticlimactic the night is. Aside from a very awkward encounter between Alvin and his husband counterpart, it's a relatively peaceful event.
"Swinging with the Finkels" is not about a big, dramatic, central event but rather about smaller, quieter moments as Alvin and Ellie and their closest friends discuss the small events that add up to the bigger dramatic stuff, like the potential end of Alvin and Ellie's marriage.
Martin Freeman is a terrific actor with a very communicative face. His work has generally played off of his ability to be apoplectic; most notably his consistently overwhelmed traveler in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." In "Swinging with the Finkels" however, we see Freeman as an average, intelligent guy earnestly interested in examining how he has arrived at this point in his life and marriage.
Mandy Moore is her usual adorable self, willing to sacrifice her dignity for the laugh; especially in a scene of self pleasure that ends with an elderly man getting hit in the crotch. You will have to see the movie to see how that happened. Moore's performance however, like Freeman's, is about the quiet, thoughtful moments as much as its about the broad, crotch shot humor.
"Swinging with the Finkels" is, in fact, so much more thoughtful than its title implies. Yes, it has moments or broad or merely awkward humor, but the the story centers strongly on the troubled marriage and how the couple attempts to understand their issues and determine if they can get past them and whether or not swinging or sex with other people may be the answer.
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