Frustrated with his stagnant marriage and a wife who no longer listens to him, Ben (David Davalos) chooses an unusual course of action to deal with his problems. He hires April (Heather Dilly) a prostitute, but not for sex or companionship. Instead, he has her re-enact the behaviors he most hates abut his wife so he can have the argument with April that he is afraid to have with his wife. But while Ben gets continued catharsis from these interactions, April is becoming increasingly attached to her client and more desiring of some sort of relationship.
This film’s plot is an unusual one and a bit confusing for the audience. The film opens with an argument montage that seems to show the deterioration of a marriage. As such, the audience naturally assumes that this is an argument between a married couple. Suddenly, however, the mood switches and we are thrown out of that montage and into a hotel room where a very different argument emerges.
In the course of the scripted argument, Ben has struck a nerve in April and she suddenly threatens to walk out. It is only then that the audience realizes that this entire exchange was some sort of act, and we find ourselves just a little bit jarred.
In the one hand, the jarring aspect is good as it throws the audience immediately and almost violently into the middle of the story without letting things drag too much – it’s far more interesting than a conventional storytelling method. On the other hand, the film is less than half an hour long, and the audience spends about half of it in some state of extended confusion.
Once the plot is revealed, however, it is certainly an intriguing one. With only two characters, one might expect things to get a bit dull after a while, but apart from a couple of repetitive lines, the acting and dialogue were spot-on.
