Director: Charlie McDowell
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 1.0
Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie (Elisabeth Moss) are experiencing relationship issues, so they consult a therapist (Ted Danson) and his suggestion is to go to a retreat where (fantasy twist!) they encounter perfect doubles of each other. As others have pointed out, it's a Twilight Zone episode stretched beyond its intellectual limitations, with Moss engaging in coitus with a Perfect Version of Ethan while Real Ethan, jealous, starts spying on their encounters. Human relationships are complicated affairs and while it appears to be a (slight) examination of Ethan and Sophie's troubles (as it were), to reduce their situation to each looking for "perfect" versions of each other is a bit extreme: a case of a screenplay getting into a situation it isn't smart enough to work itself out. Eventually, Real Ethan leaves the Mystical House with Fake Sophie - the one who allows him to eat bacon and appears nonplussed by his extra-marital affair - which sounds nice, but doesn't address the true issues at hand (why he committed the affair in the first place is glazed over). Actual love is not about perfection, but caring about someone in spite of his/her imperfections (and vice versa).
