A wintry, clenched tale of domestic strife : The Killing of Two Lovers
Credit: Handout
Dir: Robert Machoian. Starring: Clayne Crawford, Sepideh Moafi, Chris Coy, Avery Pizzuto, Arri Graham, Jonah Graham, Ezra Graham, Bruce Graham. 15 cert, 84 min
As a title, The Killing of Two Lovers does some smart work on a punchy film’s behalf. It instils a percolating sense of dread, compounded by the opening: a cuckolded husband pointing a gun, in turn, at his wife and her new paramour, while they lie asleep in the bed that used to be his.
This taut, brooding drama set in a tiny Utah town – less a thriller than an anti-thriller – curtails many of its shots abruptly, and leaves us questioning what happened in the in-between. So when David (a simmering Clayne Crawford) is next seen climbing out of a ground-floor window and sprinting away in the half-light, we wonder whether he’s done the deed. The soundtrack is sparsely punctuated with percussive whooshes, suggesting gunshots that c
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The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials.
The title of “The Killing of Two Lovers” sounds at first like a spoiler, if it’s possible to spoil something that happens, or almost happens, in the very first scene. The lovers, Niki (Sepideh Moafi) and Derek (Chris Coy), are asleep in bed on a cold morning. Their putative killer, Niki’s husband, David (Clayne Crawford), looms over them (and us) with a loaded pistol. He takes aim but doesn’t shoot there are children in the house and instead takes off, fleeing in silent anguish from a situation that he knows no violence could solve.
Print
The California Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials.
The title of “The Killing of Two Lovers” sounds at first like a spoiler, if it’s possible to spoil something that happens, or almost happens, in the very first scene. The lovers, Niki (Sepideh Moafi) and Derek (Chris Coy), are asleep in bed on a cold morning. Their putative killer, Niki’s husband, David (Clayne Crawford), looms over them (and us) with a loaded pistol. He takes aim but doesn’t shoot there are children in the house and instead takes off, fleeing in silent anguish from a situation that he knows no violence could solve.