I Really Love My Husband

A recently married couple head off on their long-awaited honeymoon to a tropical paradise, where they meet a liberally minded local who is willing to open their minds, their marriage, and their delicately managed expectations of each other.

Teresa (Lanesey) has finally tied the knot. This is something which probably came as a bit of a surprise to her family and friends, and to her too, judging by her age, her general demeanour, the simplicity of her wedding dress, and the fact that she’s taking time out from the reception to call up her ex in the bathroom – just to tell him how happy she is and how much she really loves her new husband, you understand.

Cut to a year later, and Teresa is finally getting round to going on her honeymoon with her husband, Drew (Young), in the town of Bocas del Toro, on a beautiful sun-kissed island off the coast of Panama. The couple have already had an eventful journey by the time they touch down in paradise, with Drew jumping to the rescue of another passenger whose peanut allergy flared up after Teresa opened her keto bar too close to him, and then sharing the blame with her when the rest of the cabin got a little judgemental. What a total douche, right? I mean it’s bad enough that he had to be the Golden Boy jumping in to save the day, but then sharing the blame when everyone turned on her, that’s just Goody Two-Shoes territory that’s enough to make you sick, right?

Once safely in their beach house, sans bags, the couple settle in and are introduced to Paz (Gee), the non-binary host of the rental property they’ve hired, and the immediate object of at least one of their affections. Paz hangs around without intent, just being themselves, living life at the ‘speed of nature’, as is the way of the islanders, but soon leaves the honeymooning couple to themselves as they get on with the prospect of being married together. This is not as simple or as trouble-free as it first sounds, however, and soon enough Drew’s constant optimism and need to befriend everyone they meet along the way begins to draw some muttered criticism from Teresa, as yet again she feels sidelined and not enough for his jovial personality.

In a moment of inspiration, Teresa suggests seducing Paz and having a threesome as a way of injecting some passion and excitement into the holiday, and their marriage, though she seems to be the only one who feels that they need it. Drew eventually gets on board with the idea, and so begins a menage-a-trois that lays bare the inequalities, double-standards, and bubbling insecurities that are held within the confines of the married couple’s relationship, leading to an exploration of just what it is that Teresa thinks she wants in the first place.

This voyage of self-discovery at least gets to have the backdrop of some of the most beautiful beachscapes this side of the Equator, as Teresa and Drew’s Cosmopolitan pseudo-psychology gets trotted out in the best white-privilege, safe and secluded upper-middle class beach-front, new-age holistic retreat, type of way – just this time with a willing, younger, openly sexual, non-gender-biased plaything to help keep everything sweet.

Writer/director, GG Hawkins does a good job of keeping everything focused on the couple and their issues, with or without Paz in the frame, keeping her scenes short and to the point, while the camera picks up the facial expressions needed to understand the underlying thoughts that go along with the not always so honest dialogue. It is DoP, Ryan Thomas, who really does the lion’s share here though, bringing us the stunning scenery and light from every frame, no matter the time of day or night, or whether we’re in the house, on the deck, or on the beach, with such crystal clarity that it at times rivals the aquamarine seas of the Caribbean itself.

Hawkins keeps I Really Love My Husband kicking along at a bit of a pace, fitting everything into a short seventy-nine minutes, meaning that’s there’s still plenty to enjoy, even for those people who are here for a good-time not a long-time. All of the markers are diligently hit along the way in the ‘invited home-wrecker’ storyline, with each character taking on their arc and getting something out of the scenarios they push themselves into (and then talking about it in that hokey, platitudinal, no real reasoning behind the words, Gen-Z way), even if the resolution is a bit vague and non-committal at the end of it all.

That does mean that there’s something missing though, and it’s not just the self-awareness from Teresa either. Seventy-nine minutes is just long enough to get all the story and dialogue needed, but not much else. If we cast the psychobabble aside for one moment, what we find is that even though we understand the surface intentions of the characters, we ultimately don’t have any idea of their motivations or real desires. There’s a fourth character (Kiki; Starrett) thrown into the mix as Paz’s sometime lover, and one-time foil to Teresa, but her story is never fleshed out and she seems half-formed and forgotten about by the time we’ve dealt with the main characters’ journeys.

With just an extra ten-minutes spent on establishing shots, lengthening backstory, or impactful conflict, I Really Love My Husband could have elevated itself to an indie equivalent of the best/worst George Clooney/Julia Roberts rom-coms, but as it is it remains something more akin to a Hallmark holiday special. The bones of an interesting, educated, sexual politics driven dramedy are in there, but they are left to flounder in amongst too much next-gen fluff, and aren’t given enough space to breathe and be fleshed out into something substantial. GG Hawkins’ full-feature debut is certainly a marked achievement for a mid-budget production, but much like Teresa’s marriage to Drew, more would have definitely been more in the case of I Really Love My Husband.