By Subhash K Jha
The End Of Us
Starring Ben Coleman, Ali Vingiano
Directed by Steven Kanter,Henry Loevner
Rating: ** ½
Covid inspired romcoms are like virus-shaped vegetable dishes: they are fun only to those who seek playschool-level enjoyment in torment. I have seen three English-language Covid-inspired couple-breakups films with terrific actors trying to hold together what looks like an excuse to keep the cameras rolling and kitchen fires burning during the pandemic.
In Stephen Daldry’s Together James McAvoy and Sharon Horgan shouted themselves hoarse at each other raising frazzled memories of Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore in Basu Bhattacharya’s Aavishkar. Before this, there was that other charming….pardon me, annoying Anne Hathaway -Chiwetel Ejiofor breakup drama Locked Down after the first wave when things seemed much bleaker. They were all but spitting at one another.
I liked The End Of Us better than the other two lockdown anti-romcoms. For one it is breezier more effervescent in tone even when the theme is nastily negative. But the couple looks committed to keeping the proceedings agreeable even as their relationship cracks up in front of us.
When we first meet Nick(Ben Coleman) and Leah(Ali Vingiano) they are sick of each other after months of being locked down together. We gather from their catfights and verbal duels(Covid’s new normal : backstories told rather than shown) that Nick is a struggling actor and his failed auditions have nothing to do with the pandemic. He’s just made a habit of messing up his auditions and Leah is done with his tantrums.
The fun part of the breakup is that they have to stay under the same roof as Nick has nowhere else to go. Even his close relatives are heard telling him on the phone that there is no room for him in their house.Nick has the decent to not feel hurt: he knows how irksome his presence can be.
So the couple must bear with each other somehow: interrupted phone calls(“Do you mind , some of us are trying to study”) , taunts about stolen comfort creams(“Your face is looking abnormally supple”)and worse snub of all: changed Netflix password…Nick faces the fury of a woman scorned…well, if not scorned then certainly spurned .
There are just two major actors in the film(pandemic moderation) . The rest are mainly incidental figures and voices that come and go reminding us that the two squabbling ex-lovers are luckier then they think.Unlike the seasoned troopers in Locked Down and Together, Ben Coleman and Ali Viangiano in The End Of Us are relative newcomers. They bring a fresh-faced immediacy to their domestic battle.
And when Nick gets possessive again, reprimanding Leah for doing more than talking with her mouth while out on a date , we know a happy ending is around the corner. Covid be damned.
