‘The End of Love’ Review

Release Date: March 1, 2013 (Limited)
Director: Mark Webber
MPAA Rating: NR
Film Pulse Score: 4/10

Mark Webber stars, directs, and writes his latest film, The End of Love, also starring his real-life son Issac Love.  The first 20-30 minutes are filled with great potential as we see father and son interact, but after that, the film descends into ridiculous moments in which Mark meets up with famous people like Michael Cera and Aubrey Plaza and at a party, and has an audition with Amanda Seyfried.  These characters all keep their same names, as do Mark and Issac for that matter.  For a film with such great initial potential, everything after that is ridiculous and borderline psychotic in some scenes.

As I said, the first act showing Mark’s relationship with his son his marvelous to watch.  Issac is adorable and Mark is a devoted father.  We see glimpses of his wife who died when Issac was about one year of age.  We get the impression that Mark has never gotten over his wife’s car accident and that Issac doesn’t really remember her.  One impression and yet difficult-to-watch scene involves Mark auditioning for Amanda Seyfried with Issac in tow.  Mark begins to brag to friends that he’s up for a Paul Thomas Anderson film, which is clearly a pipedream.

Mark gets invited to a party at Michael Cera’s house and there we see other noted celebrities with whom Mark interacts.  He tries to hook up with a girl he knew from New York, but that goes nowhere when she discovers he has a kid.  This party wastes about 20 minutes or so of the film, dragging it down and providing inane filler.  Mark sleeps at Michael’s and finds himself really late to get back to Issac whose been taken care of by a new Spanish nanny who stayed all night with the boy much to her dismay.  Ultimately, Mark’s roommates kick him out at the end of the month because he’s not brought any money into the rent payment.  Mark is devastated, wondering where he and Issac are going to go.

Along the way, Mark meets Lydia (Shannyn Sossamon) who runs a play place for young children.  They hit it off and share some intimate moments after their own children go to bed.  However, Mark almost ruins things with Lydia when he tells her he loves her while they are making out.  It’s too much for her, but she does meet with him again and he explains his wife’s death.

In the end, we are left with Mark and Issac sharing some time together, unclear as to what the future holds, particularly where they will live.  We are not left knowing what will happen to them, but I was left caring.

The film should have just stayed with the father-son relationship and not had Mark going to famous actors’ places and/or connecting with another single parent looking for an intimate relationship.  However, there was probably too much with the kid and Mark to fill out 1:30 movie.  It’s not a bad film, but its potential far outweighed its execution.  And it’s a shame, because it started so wonderfully.