The Killing of Two Lovers: Gripping Family Drama Examines a Murder of a Different Sort

By Kim Hughes

Rating: B+

Low-budget but high-impact, writer/director Robert Machoian’s gripping, Sundance-fêted The Killing of Two Lovers is, to judge by its trailer and title, a white-knuckle thriller with a possible homicidal twist. In reality, the starkly lit and shot film is a gently paced family drama about a collapsing marriage which, come to think of it, merits its horror-story veneer even if it is something of a red herring.

In a rural, perennially overcast and unnamed small town (unnamed save for a retail sign at film’s end reading South Fork), David and Nikki are trying to work it out. Married just out of high school and with four kids — a morose teenage daughter and three rambunctious young boys — the 30-something couple have hit a relationship wall.

We gradually learn the pair have agreed to a trial separation during which they are free to see other people. This is an arrangement Nikki pursues but David cannot as he remains devoted to his wife and children and desperately wants to put the family back together.

David and Nikki go through the usual motions of a trial separation (independent activities with the kids, child-free date nights etc) but Nikki’s new lover Derek hangs like a pall over everything, and sullen daughter Jess gives voice to many of David’s fears.

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Soundtracked by mooing cows and the lonely howl of trains passing in the distance, The Killing of Two Lovers is a quiet, hunched-shoulder story, with lots of static shots and natural light, and very real-seeming. The film belongs mostly to David (Clayne Crawford), whose herculean struggles to appease his wife and stay connected to his children while moving back home with his elderly father in a place where everyone knows his story is a weight we can feel.

When Derek and David finally square off over Nikki, there is a flash of explosive violence worthy of the film’s title, though it’s more heartbreaking than horrific. The effect is no less bruising.

The Killing of Two Lovers. Written and directed by Robert Machoian. Starring Chris Coy, Clayne Crawford, and Arri Graham. Available in theatres, and digital and on-demand on May 14.