Permission
(USA, 96 min.)
Written and directed by Brian Crano
Starring: Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Morgan
Spector, David Joseph Craig, François Arnaud, Gina
Gershon, Jason Sudeikis
There’s a Curb Your Enthusiasm
episode somewhere to which Anna (Rebecca Hall) and Will (Dan Stevens) could
have been referred. That episode sees Cheryl give Larry an odd birthday present
in the form of her permission to sleep with another woman. Anyone with a
subscription to HBO could draw from Larry’s experience and tell Anna and/or
Will a four-word relationship survival guide: just don’t do it.
Writer/director Brian Crano invites audiences to wrestle
with this messy scenario as Anna and Will score partners quickly without so
much as logging on to Ashley Madison. (A bit too quickly, for people who’ve
been out of the dating scene for years.) Anna picks up Dane (Canadian actor
François Arnaud), a hunky musician. Dane offers some practical compatibility to
Anna’s ongoing dissertation on music in addition to giving her multiple orgasms.
Will hooks up with Lydia (Gina Gershon), a mature nympho who waltzes into his
furniture and compliments his wood. He lets makes her feel young while she lets
him unleash his inhibitions. A few nights later, they mind their confidence in
the relationship banged out of shape by new sights, smells, sizes, and
experiences.
Their experiment arouses questions in Reese and his partner
Hale (David Joseph Craig), who disagree on the terms of a fulfilling relationship
and lifestyle. This storyline of Permission
is actually the stronger of the two despite playing a secondary role. While
both couples ask relevant questions with which all relationships inevitably
grasp, the narrative with Reese and Hale arises more naturally and plausibly than Anna and Will’s sexcapade. Hale meets another man (Jason
Sudeikis) who leaves him questioning his desire to be a father and the audience
second-guessing the relationship that made Anna and Will’s look limp.
Anna and Will’s awkward predicament, on the other hand,
mostly conflates sex with love, and while that’s a major aspect of any
relationship, it’s not all of it. Permission
doesn’t provide any insight to the dissatisfactions that Anna and Will feel
outside of the bedroom; moreover, the early scenes don’t invest the audience in
their relationship from the outset. The stakes between Reese and Hale are riper
since Permission presents a seemingly
happy and strong relationship that it shakes through ordinary questions and
doubts that anyone can encounter while approaching middle age. The film also
doesn’t treat Dane or Lydia all that fairly, either, which makes Anna and
Will’s experiment feel cruel even if Permission
asks questions with more maturity and honesty than most rom coms do.
Permission
nevertheless buoys the messy situation with a strong ensemble cast that keeps
the characters likable and credible even if the events they experience are not.
Hall and Stevens are earnestly girl-next-door/boy-next-door as they wrestle
with ideas of happily ever after with the former being cautiously optimistic
about life and the latter competently boring. Arnaud and Gershon give
performances that shine with a genuine lust for life and as their characters
inspire viewers to savour unpredictability and new experiences. These two light
up the screen with sparks that are palpably missing from Anna and Will’s love
life. Spector and Craig, finally, give viewers a relationship to test and
consider as the most dynamic characters of the film who offer the ultimate
trial of the life one wants to lead.
The film admirably considers relationships on a diverse
spectrum with its sex-positive sextet and doesn’t settle on any easy formula
for happiness that romantic comedies tend to favour. Bathed in bright pink
lights across New York’s lively scene of singles embracing the nightlife in
search for love, Permission presents
a range of questions that ask what one wants in life: the comfortable Hollywood
romance or something real with its challenges, consequences, and satisfying
uncertainty. There aren’t easy answers and the film is better for it.
Permission opens in select cities on Friday, February 9.