In this romantic comedy, a couple opens their relationship to prove they can be married and modern.
A generation ago, it would be demographically unexceptional for the newlyweds of Hannah Marks’s delightful romantic comedy “Mark, Mary & Some Other People” to vow till-death-do-they-part at 26. But in this era — and this economy — Mark (Ben Rosenfield), a dog walker/aspiring inventor, and Mary (Hayley Law), a naughty maid/aspiring singer, are a freak show to their single friends who razz the pair for buying into institutionalized monogamy.
Marriage is, like, totally lame and repressive, goes the argument, no matter how many mushrooms the kooky couple gobbled on their honeymoon. And so the peer-pressured Mark and Mary open their bedroom to some other people — lots of other people — to prove they can be married and modern.
Marks, just 28 herself, is a sharp and funny observer of today’s youth paradox: How can her generation build stability on a foundation of temp jobs, shifting social mores and the suspicion that the entire planet might collapse before they cash in their 401(k)s? (Related: Why bother growing up at all?)
These doubts lurk in the shadows of this candy-tinted charmer. Mostly, the director spotlights how the easily bruised Mark and the recklessly confident Mary are too immature to commit to their own commitment — and too broke for therapy. The editor Andy Holton notes the forced laughs, the anxious tequila shots, the cookies stress-eaten in the pillaged marriage bed, all over a soundtrack of swoony pop. It’s clear these overgrown kids are careening toward adult-size pain. But Marks’s infatuation with her flawed lovebirds also seduces the audience. If Mark and Mary could see their chemistry through the camera’s lens, they’d embrace becoming old, gray and hopelessly passé.
Mark, Mary & Some Other People
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 30 minutes. In theaters and available to rent or buy on Apple TV, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
