Marriages can be tricky. There’s any reason they can seem to be or actually are veering off course. If the marriage in question centers on 2 people working in the same competitive field (say novel writers), the divide can be even dicier. Laura Terruso’s feature debut, Fits and Starts, sets lofty goals for a film that choses charm and quirk over grandstanding.
Anyone who has seen the last film she co-wrote (2015’s My Name Is Doris) will be accutely aware of Terruso’s ability to develop sweet, as well as, engaging characters . While it may come off as predictable, the strength of the script and the performances elevate it above most other indie fare.
David (Wyatt Cenac) is a former professor turned struggling writer. The emphasis there is due to the fact that he spends more time with his struggling than actually writing. Appearing mostly detached from the world, he remains stealthily acutely aware of everyone around him and how his actions may be perceived. Like a chameleon in the process of changing colors as he steals the crown jewels, David’s natural instinct is often to cut and run. When push comes to shove though, he petrifies. Just about every time this occurs though, it’s entirely warranted.
Jennifer (Greta Lee) is the main cause of David’s consternation, both direct and indirect. A talented up and coming writer, whose second book has already been hailed as the next big thing, even more of a rousing success than her previous effort. She’s also his wife. When the couple gets invited to a swanky “artist party” directly outside of town, things aren’t so quickly fall off the rails and a night of contained chaos starts to unfold.
Events in Fits And Starts may seem small, not necessarily rushed, yet intimately compressed into controlled chaos. The majority of Wyatt Cenac’s scene take place at the “artist party”, which feels like an elongated updating of a somewhat similar scene in Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. It’s here Terruso exposes a sharp set of satirical fangs. Her target? Why, the creative jugular of course. Cenac seems to relish in that he gets the play off the lunacy around him, alternating from merely reacting, to full on take down mode.
While Cenac gets the showier of the 2 performances, Greta Lee proves that she’s no slouch herself. Under the surface of award winning writer becoming pretentious, Lee plays Jennifer as a woman whose been told “how” her success should be handled, instead of letting go and embracing the moment.
A few scanty flashbacks give us insight to where these characters come from. It may sound silly, but Cenac finds warmer core in these moments, not only showing range, but punctuating why this couple mean so much to each other.
Running 80 minutes, Terruso and company understand effectiveness and economy, turning in a film that is as lean as it is funny. Several beats may be seen from a mile away, yet is never truly a hindrance. More often than not, it feels as if film actively feels the audience beginning to sigh and instead chooses to cleverly subvert expectations altogether. A quaint relationship comedy of errors, with a snappy satirical bite, Fits and Starts signals the start of a low-key director willing to put characters & comedy above rote dribble. That’s worth raising a cheap glass of convenience store quality wine to.
