In “I Actually Love My Husband,” GG Hawkins’ undercooked characteristic debut as a writer-director, Teresa (Madison Lanesey) tells others that she actually loves her husband each likelihood that she will get. However by saying it out loud, it typically appears to be like and seems like she is at the beginning making an attempt to persuade herself that her love is the true form. Besides, beginning with the early scenes of this comedic drama that might have used each higher humor and deeper dramatic stakes, there are numerous clues that she won’t, in reality, be in love with Drew (Travis Quentin Younger), an incurable people-pleaser who Teresa truly appears to be irritated with too typically. (Why else would she be on the telephone on her marriage ceremony day with who seems to be her ex, exaggeratedly telling them about how a lot she loves her husband?)

We get to know the usual dynamic between the questionably joyful couple on a flight to their honeymoon in idyllic Bocas del Toro, Panamá, whereas Drew does every little thing in his energy to be exhaustingly genial, whereas Teresa exhibits her comparably on-edge persona. An in-flight episode a couple of fellow passenger’s near-fatal nut allergy briefly makes Teresa the suspect — is it her Keto bar that brought on the disaster? However when Drew heroically jumps in to share the blame, it turns into a bridge too far for Teresa. Does he actually should be this rattling good on a regular basis?

As we spend extra time with the couple, Teresa’s skepticism is smart in sure methods — nonetheless well-meaning Drew is perhaps, nobody desires to appear like the relative dangerous man when their important different collects all the great will, generally on the expense of their partner. However what doesn’t make sense is Teresa’s gradual unraveling throughout their honeymoon, contemplating their journey isn’t even instantly after their marriage ceremony. They’ve been married for an entire 12 months already and so they lastly have the time to rejoice their union.

Even if you happen to take their actuality at face worth — that someway this mismatched pair obtained married a 12 months in the past and stayed married that entire time — what comes after the flight more and more exams one’s endurance as Teresa acts in unforgivably harsh methods in direction of Drew. We aren’t supposed to evaluate in fact, as each individual (in actual life and in films) is allowed their very own awakening and progress no matter their age. However you’re by no means fairly certain whether or not the film itself manages to remain non-judgmental in direction of Teresa as she tries to boost her marriage with Drew, solely to ultimately blow up and admit to her true emotions. Typically, this critic wished that among the grace notes that the script allowed Drew have been additionally utilized for Teresa.

Fortunately, the movie dials up its vitality (solely briefly) with the introduction of Paz (a really charming Arta Gee), the non-binary supervisor of the couple’s trip rental. There’s some chemistry amid the trio — one Hawkins ought to have teased and leaned into extra — which leads Teresa to counsel to Drew, “What if we seduced Paz?” Quickly, she will get her want and the trio has a rewarding threesome, an episode “I Actually Love My Husband” neither exhibits, nor (fortunately) judges. However predictably, this escapade proves to be a distraction from, somewhat than an answer to, their actual drawback. Irrespective of how they spin it, Teresa and Drew aren’t all that appropriate. Figuring out this, staying with “I Actually Love My Husband” — even at its compact 79-minute-runtime — appears like a chore, regardless of the film’s fairly places (although the movie’s digital look doesn’t do justice to them) and dedicated solid. Amongst them is Lisa Jacqueline Starrett, who alluringly performs a former actuality TV star and Paz’s pal that the story can’t discover a actual use for.

Nonetheless, the primary situation with “I Actually Love My Husband” is its inauthentic set-up that asks us to imagine that people who find themselves as worldly, open-minded and conscious of their very own wants because the movie’s central couple, fall into marriage and monogamy as a result of it’s what’s anticipated of them, and never as a result of it’s what they need. And admittedly, that’s asking just a little an excessive amount of in right this moment’s self-care-oriented society. It’s not that dangerous marriages don’t occur from Gen X to Gen Z. And it’s not that there’s something incorrect with recognizing that your wants have developed over the course of your first 12 months of marriage. However “I Actually Love My Husband” completely spells out that Teresa has all the time felt considerably suffocated in her home association, uncertain of whether or not she truly liked Drew from the day they began courting. In that, it’s anybody’s guess why she caught along with her marriage and “I Actually Love My Husband” gained’t offer you any enough causes to care about them sufficient to maintain guessing.