Real Love is a six
episode romantic comedy weighing in at about 2.5 hours, about a bunch of
friends living in a Boston apartment a few years out of college. It is not my
usual fare, but it was actually kickstarted
by some people I know so I had to watch it. As such, I am not sure I can be
totally unbiased (honest) with my review, but I will do my best. Some minor
spoilers abound so if you want a pure viewing experience skip to the
summary.
Plot/Script
Real love is a story about trying to find out whats next. In that sense it
captures the feel of TV shows like Freak and Geeks and
Undeclared. Without
spoiling too much of the plot, we spend most of our time watching the
interaction between Dylan and Beth. The back and forth play between them and
the other characters is funny, but still manages to be poignant at times. There
is a real good sense of characters just trying figure things out which
especially appeals to me. Some of the plot beats I found a little jarring, such
as the early marriage proposal between two characters and the strange closeness
already apparent between Dylan and Beth. I did not know the characters well
enough to understand why they were acting this way early on. Speaking more to
the script there is quite a lot of humor to be found here. A number of jokes
keep reoccurring and seemed to only get funnier the more they happened. I was a
little concerned things would get a bit cheesy, but the writing smartly avoids
these pitfalls and kept things feeling real. The plot moves along briskly,
there are no wasted scenes, and the dialogue is believable and not loaded down
with exposition.
Characters/Actors
There are four main characters, and three side characters. Of the main
characters my favorite would have to be Dylan. The actor, Patrick Skeyhill,
always manages to capture an otherworldly physicality that is really quite
humorous. He elevates normal scenes to funny scenes with just his comic
actions. Beth, played by Courtland Jones, is the emotional strength of the
series. She brings the gravitas and is a good foil to the general silliness of
Dylan. The other two main characters (played well by Richard Nickerson as Liam
and Jess Corey as Emma) provide a good compliment to each other and push the
plot forward. Jess generally plays it pretty straight, but her husband to be,
Richard, always has a non-sequitur to mix things up.
The side characters play effective roles in support of the plot. Eddie,
played by, Nick Wakely has a deep thundering accent and his strange thought
trains always keep the scenes he is in light. Adam, Beth’s boyfriend for most
of the film, is perhaps a bit too earnest, but that makes his deadpan line
delivery all the more funny. Finally Cara, portrayed by Katie O’Connor, is
perfect in her role as the crazy ex-girlfriend of Dylan. Her manic delivery and
borderline crazy voice provides a real believable edge to her character which
she uses to good effect.
Technical/Music
You can see the indie roots most clearly in the technical aspects of the
film. The film quality is generally good, but scenes with a lot of light
suffer. Windows and doors to the outside are often bathed in high intensity
light. It looks odd and it was distracting. In addition I think some of the
characters lines were overdubbed in post and it did not sound good. It was not
super noticeable, but I did notice it.
In general I liked the score, I am not much of a musical fan so it is kind
of hard to judge this aspect of it, but I thought it complimented the emotional
feel of the scenes nicely. That said sometimes it felt like the music was too
overwhelming. Some scenes would have been better if the music was less obvious
or quieter. Shot selection was pretty standard, nothing too creative. One of
the few times Real Love gets clever is the pan from midday to a night time
party scene. It is smartly used and makes the transition slick. I would have
liked to see some smoother cuts, as most of time the camera just seemed to
bounce from character to character.
Extras
If you buy the special edition DVD (which I did), you get all six episodes,
the prologue, the soundtrack, and two audio commentary tracks. I have listened
to some of both commentary tracks and they provide good insight and more
laughs. I wish the DVD had included the deleted scenes and shorts they mention
in the commentary, but that might have required another DVD so it is not a big
deal. The case insert is good quality and its simple design looks nice on the
shelf.
Summary
I liked this film, It had important things to say about life after college
and it was funny enough to not take itself so serious all the time. You can buy
it via their store.
Back of the box quote: “Real good, real funny, worth your money.”