| A thriller that is a lot more interesting because of how it’s presented. If this was told straight, let’s say chronologically, it would be a boring, forgotten movie not even worth the 75 minutes of your time. But instead, I Don’t Love You Anymore tells this story in pieces, three different points of view that don’t even contradict one another but just adds another angle to consider where sympathies, empathies or guilt lies. | | 2025
Directed by: Mitch Marcus
Screenplay by: Mitch Marcus
Starring: Henri Esteve, Hope Lauren, and Marcus Henderson
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It’s a smart, confident movie that makes very good use of its presumably (very) minimal budget. A husband and wife, Brett (Henri Esteve) and Angie (Hope Lauren), are being held in a police station and questioned separately. Standard procedure as the detective said, which is true, it makes it much easier to catch them in lies. The story is that a homeless man broke into their house, stole Brett’s gun from him, and then shot himself in the head, falling into their backyard pool. A story that is barely believable on the surface, and much less believable as you hear Brett tell it.
Brett is up first. It’s just him in a bare room with a police detective off screen. Half of the movie is told this way, the rest of it is flashbacks to the night before when the shooting occurred, and flashbacks to 10 years earlier to their college graduation. It can be difficult acting with no screen partners, so it’s a very bold move for an independent film with no big name actors, but it pays off as all three main actors are fantastic and deliver really compelling performances, especially when it’s just them and the camera.
Brett’s story falls apart quickly. He’s not out-right lying, but he is lying via omission as he leaves out some key pieces of information that completely change the story around. The other two characters, Angie and Kevin (the homeless man, played by Marcus Henderson) are more confident in their answers. It’s not that they’re better liars, it’s that they feel they’re at rock bottom already.
One of the best scenes occurs between Brett and Angie. At the moment it feels like a pivotal change in the story, but at the end, it’s revealed that it was a pivotal moment in the presentation of their stories but for two entirely reasons than the audience first assumes. The detective has just told Brett that Angie’s story differs from his. He pleads to go see her, desperately hurt trying to understand why she changed her story. Her face remains ice cold, she doesn’t love him anymore.
I Don’t Love You Anymore breaks down a story of love, lies, mental health and fidelity. It’s creative in its approach, and takes a somewhat slight story and turns it into something interesting and compelling. It has a fantastic ending, just in case the audience thought the rug couldn’t be pulled out from underneath them anymore.
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