Fling

Open relationships have never really been in my repertoire. I’m a pretty committed guy. I find a girl or she finds me and we stick it out until one or both of us feel otherwise. Some people will argue that it is not natural to simply have one mate, instead we have to find multiple people to share relationships and intercourse with. In the movie Fling, it deals with an open relationship between Samantha & Mason. My money is on the fact that one of them goes too far in their openness and the relationship becomes strained. Let’s see how good my guesses are today.

Sam (played by Courtney Ford) and Mason (played by Steve Sandvoss) are in an open relationship. Sam is looking to open her own business while Mason writes trashy romance novels. They also find time to have relations with each other and anybody else they can shack up with. At a wedding, Sam rekindles a relationship with James (played by Brandon Routh), an old boyfriend. Mason, meanwhile finds out that his best friend Luke’s (played by Nick Wechsler) sister, Olivia (played by Shoshana Bush) is very taken with him.

There are a few issues with each scenario. James wants Sam all to himself and doesn’t know quite how to handle the fact that she is in an open relationship with Mason. It doesn’t end there, she might have some real feelings for him too. Mason on the other hand is trying to deal with the fact that Olivia is only eighteen years old. Furthermore, he can’t jeopardize his friendship with Luke who also acts as his manager for his literary work. Is there a relationship to save between Sam & Mason or will it simply go by the waste side for tentative relationships newly formed?

It seems that the phrase for the day is bait & switch. One look at the dvd cover for Fling and you are expecting one giant sexual escapade. Clothes will be flying, spit will be swapped, and things will get hairy. The truth is that Fling is just a relationship movie. Heck, outside of a few scenes, it practically borders on one of those romantic movies you might find on Lifetime or Oxygen. Its R simply because of language and the adult themes that are discussed for the 98 minute runtime (it’s not appropriate for children though). However, it is fairly mild.

The acting is decent and the film is fairly well directed. The main issue I have with this film is that every plot point can be predicted easily. Open relationship gone awry and a dozen clichés are suddenly agreed upon and thrown into the movie. I certainly don’t want to give anyway anything but let us just say that if you have watched a romantic comedy, you know what to expect here. Furthermore, if you have watched one involving an open or recently broken up relationship, you should have down pat what will probably happen. The movie is simply average in every way.

Video

The dvd is presented in 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. It was nice to see a low budget film go the way of 2.35 aspect ratio but don’t expect too many miracles. The film is well shot in certain places but it often felt as in-consistent. I liked the colors here and there but some scenes seemed to stop when they shouldn’t have and jump quickly to the next screen. I’m not sure if I just got a bad disc but there was a couple of times when things were just off.

Audio

The film is recorded in 5.1 & 2.0 English Dolby Digital. This is a dialog driven movie and needless to say that most of the audio stays in the center channel. The talking is clear and there are even a few times where the audio for a song will bounce from channel to channel as shown in the opener. Not bad for the type of film, just don’t expect too much. Closed captioning is also available.

Special Features

• Automatic Trailers: The Deal (this one looks really good), The Go-Getter, & the Baby $itters.
• Theatrical Trailer 2:22: The original trailer, it does what it should to promote the movie.
• Behind the Camera: “The Making of Fling” 11:14: This is a different take on the usual behind the scenes montage. This is hosted by Anna Toms and Kelly Jordahl. They are two Kansas City college students who helped out with the film and shot a bunch of video diaries.
• Commentary with Director: John Stewart Muller, Producer Laura Boersma, and Cinematographer: Frederick Schroeder: A very good commentary, they tend to stick on subject and they seem like they had a lot of fun making the movie.
• Video Vignettes 4:08: Three tiny featurettes that go over good friends, love issues and open relationships. All this in a month of shooting? Hard to believe.
• Digital Copy : Digital Copies are provided in either IPOD (MP4) or Windows Media (wmv) format.
• Deleted, Alternate, and Extended Scenes 12:03: Nine scenes, none of which would have greatly enhanced the movie. In fact, some of them would have made little to no sense at all.

Final Thoughts

Fling is one of those movies that appears to be one thing on the box, and something a little different inside. The movie is just a romantic drama, sewn up in the backdrop of an open relationship. Something to make it a little spicier. In the end, it is nothing more than an average romantic drama. In fact, this is one of those films where you wish a giant fireball would descend and absolute destroy the cast of characters cause it would have been more entertaining that way. Not the actors of course, just the characters they play. The ending is borderline happy and odd when there should have been some kinda casualty instead. Like a giant fireball. I digress. For those who like the movie, they get plenty of extras to enjoy. The video and audio are adequate but this is another of those films that is defined by the word ordinary. The cast looks like they had a lot of fun and they were also talented but there isn’t anything to see here. Move along.