The One I Love (2014)

After commenting on Coherence a few days ago, my friend and regular commenter Baldwin recommended The One I Love as another compelling low budget film.  So I rented it on iTunes (a challenge to download it here in Indonesia, where I am for the time being) and watched it today at a coffee / doughnut shop, while I was enjoying a day off.

There are some similarities to Coherence in a superficial way – the movie moves into a progressively (and only partially) explained science fiction territory, features quite a limited cast and limited number of sets, and was partially improvised.  In this case, the actors knew the whole story from the beginning, but the dialog was still largely created on set.

But aside from that, it’s quite a different project.  The plot of The One I Love is that a marriage therapist sends a struggling couple away to a private retreat as part of their process of sorting out their differences.  Ethan has been unfaithful to Sophie, and the two are finding it difficult to come to terms with how to move on.  So they go to this beautiful home that has a little guest cottage in the back yard.  But while they are there they discover something really strange…

(this is of course where you should stop reading if you don’t want the initial twist of the movie spoiled for you)