I Do... Until I Don't - Review

R: September 1st, 2017 | R: 106 minutes | R: R

“I Do...Until I don’t” is a romantic comedy, where filmmaker Vivian (played by Dolly Wells) is making a documentary to prove that marriages should only last for seven years, and then have a option for renewal. The Documentary stars three struggling couples; a couple whose wife (played by Lake Bell) thinks that her husband (played by Ed Helms) is sleeping with her sister (played by Amber Heard), a hippie couple that have a open-sex relationship (played by Amber Heard and Wyatt Cenac), and older couple who just hate each other (played by Paul Reiser and Mary Steenburgen). Will these couples end up devorcing by the end of shooting the documentary, or will they realize that they have been taking their marriages for granted?

This rom-com is written, directed, and stars Lake Bell and while it had good intentions, it did not get interesting until the final act of the film. This movie had a long going for it, especially with such a star studded cast, but it disappointingly resulted in a sloppy mess. To start it had a very depressing tone for the majority of the film (and that was definitely not what Lake Bell was aiming for), and throughout the feature there were numerous illogical moments, as well as plenty of continuity errors. Structurally there was quite a bit of downtime, leaving the story quite bland. This film felt like it was made from a template where the director just placed scenes into where they seemed to fit best. But the biggest flaw was I was never engaged in the film, until the very end of the feature. Now acting wise, I really enjoyed Ed Helms’s performance as Noah. The hippie couple Fanny (played by Amber Heard) and Zander (played by Wyatt Cenac) also stood out. They brought the most laughs to this film and caused several “wth” moments. But Lake Bell’s performance as Alice was painful to get through. You would think that the director/writer of this film would be able to play a somewhat likable character, but her performance was tragic. And her relationship with Noah was painfully awkward. It did not seem realistic at all. The director of the documentary, Vivian (played by Dolly Wells) was also annoying and very cartoonish. Over all the cast did not perform well, and had very little chemistry.

Now while I am bashing on this film quite a bit, I did find the editing to be very unique with such fast paced cuts. I also thought that it had some very unconventional. and well thought out humor that did work for this film. And I did enjoy the third act of this film. It just took far too long to get to that point.

Overall I was very disappointed with this film. Especially with such a star studded cast. I just expected more from it. The story and script were very week and at points the performances from the cast (especially Lake Bell) were laughable. The majority of the film was also far too depressing, and did not fit the lighthearted/cartoonish performances from the cast. I can not recommend anyone to see “I Do...Until I Don’t”. It just takes far too long to become interesting, and the cast as well as the plot is just too weak.

Rating: 2 out of 5

Cabell (Contributor) is a filmmaker from Tampa, Florida. He will watch just about any film but when he's not reviewing the latest hits he spends time directing films of his own.
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