Butler's Cinema Scene

“THE KILLING OF TWO LOVERS” My rating: B

85 minutes | MPAA rating: R

With a title like “The Killing of Two Lovers” you pretty much expect the film to end in ugliness.

And our first glimpse of writer/director Robert Machoian’s fourth feature doesn’t do anything to allay those fears. In the opening scene a man holding a pistol surreptitiously enters a house and stands menacingly at the foot of the bed where a couple lie sleeping.

The intruder is David (Clayne Crawford), and we soon learn that this is his house. Or was. Currently David is residing just down the road in the home of his aged father.

The sleeping woman is his wife Nikki (Sepideh Moafi); her bedmate is her new lover Derek (Chris Coy).

This setup reeks of melodramatic possibilities, but instead of the revenge tragedy we expect Machoian delivers an insightful character study, both of a man and of a failed marriage.

Bearded and somewhat unkempt, David works as a handyman in the small, snow-swept Utah town he has always called home. He’s a working stiff with just a basic education; he once harbored dreams of guitar-picking stardom, but those are long gone.

He’s slowly sinking into depression and something like rage. He and Nikki are in a trial separation — they’ve agreed that each can see other people. David — who has eyes for no-one but Nikki — maintains they might still repair the marriage.

His wife — a college grad with professional aspirations — harbors no such illusions. It’s pretty clear she’s outgrown him.

They’ve got four kids whom David adores with clumsy sincerity (he’s got a vast repertoire of not-very-funny Dad jokes). But it seems every time he gets a moment with his offspring something goes disastrously wrong. In large part it’s because the oldest, Jesse (Avery Pizzuto), is bitterly furious at her parents for allowing the family to collapse.

“The Killing of Two Lovers” — which was nominated this year for the John Cassavetes Award at the Film Independent Spirit Awards — tears a page from the Kelly Reichart playbook (if you’re gonna steal, steal from the best). Machoian employs long takes, leisurely pacing, a square film frame and eschews closeups in favor of shots that make David a small figure in a large (if largely empty) landscape.

Acting-wise it’s practically a one-man show. David is always front and center, and Crawford (I recognize him from Sundance TV’s “Rectify,” where he played the tire salesman brother of the show’s Death Row protagonist) walks a painfully effective line between the character’s macho impulses and his essential decency.

You feel for the poor slob…but when it comes to emotions he’s a primitive dealing with sophisticates. Way out of his league.

| Robert W. Butler