With their marriage struggling, Sophie (Elizabeth Moss) and Ethan (Mark Duplass) visit a therapist (Ted Danson). They tell of how the night they met they snuck into a stranger’s pool and went swimming. They were caught and the man came out yelling. They tried to recreate the excitement of their early relationship by revisiting the house and again sneaking in to swim in the pool, but the man doesn’t catch them this time. The therapist recommends they go to a cottage a few hours north for a vacation to rekindle their romance.
On the first night, Sophie wanders out to the guest house and finds Ethan, and the two make love. Upon returning to the main house, she is bemused to find Ethan asleep on the couch. She asks him how he got there so fast and to stop trying to trick her. She tells him how they made love and he tells her now she’s playing a trick. They didn’t make love.
The next morning Ethan goes to the guest house and finds Sophie there and she offers to make him bacon for breakfast. This surprises Ethan because she’s always telling him not to eat bacon. He leaves the guest house and finds Sophie back at the main house and the two realize that something very strange is going on. The guest house seems to possess a double of their significant other who is more accommodating and honest. They try to both go in together but find that they can’t both be there experiencing this phenomenon at the same time.
They consider leaving, but decide to explore the strange phenomenon with some rules: 1) no more than 15 minutes in the guest house, 2) no intimacy with the double and 3) no spying on the other person. These rules are quickly thrown out.
Sophie finds the guest house Ethan able to articulate his feelings and the struggles in their relationship better than the real Ethan. He is also more spontaneous and seemingly unencumbered with the tension that has grown between them.
When Ethan enters the guest house, he is unable to connect with the guest house Sophie in the same way, because he can’t lay aside his suspicions. He tries to plant his phone on record mode in the guest house so he can spy on Sophie and guest house Ethan. But when he returns later, guest house Sophie has discovered the phone and the recording is just static.
We learn that before they started therapy, Ethan had cheated on Sophie, in a scene in which Guest house Ethan apologizes beautifully, and Sophie allows herself to make love to him, breaking the rules she had set with the real Ethan.
Ethan becomes suspicious that Sophie has been growing more intimate with guest house Ethan. He plays a ruse where he says he’s going to the store, but then drives around the corner and times it perfectly so that when Sophie enters the guest house, she believes Ethan is guest house Ethan. Ethan is comically tongue tied when Sophie gushes about how articulate guest house Ethan (who she believes she is talking to) is. They make love.
Ethan and Sophie begin noticing strange interactions with the outside world. Some of Ethan’s shirts are missing and Ethan finds messages from his friends and family that indicate that guest house Ethan somehow got ahold of his phone and was asking questions about his history. Ethan and Sophie become unnerved enough that Ethan asks again if they can leave, but Sophie finds she is developing feelings towards Ethan’s double.
The One I Love is an American romantic dramedy film, directed by Charlie McDowell. It is written by Justin Lader. The film had its world premiere at 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 21, 2014. After the film’s premiere at Sundance Film Festival, RADiUS-TWC acquired the distribution rights of the film. It had a theatrical release on August 22, 2014 in United States.
The One I Love
Directed by: Charlie McDowell
Starring: Mark Duplass, Elisabeth Moss, Ted Danson, Marlee Matlin, Lori Farrar, Kiana Cason
Screenplay by: Justin Lader
Production Design by: Theresa Guleserian
Cinematography by: Doug Emmett
Film Editing by: Jennifer Lilly
Costume Design by: Bree Daniel
Art Direction by: Erika Toth
Music by; Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans
MPAA Rating: R for language, some sexuality and drug use.
Studio: Radius – TWC
Release Date: August 22, 2014
Visits: 71
