It’s a trick, folks. Don’t ever fall for it, if you can help it. Screw fame, marriage is a fickle food upon a shifting plate, and it hasn’t found alterations since the beginning of monogamy. That is the moral of this film, The Freebie, that makes a case for idiotic ideas as well as laughing at anyone who still thinks marriage is forever, that there is such thing as a perfect match. Because there’s no such thing.

The film introduces Annie, played by director Katie Aselton, and her doting husband Darren (Dax Shepard), who can still have dinner with friends without expressing mushy love all over each other and who can criticize said friends’ relationships in the car ride after. At home, however, they are obviously perfect for each other. They can even skip a night of intimacy for “racing,” aka competing in crossword puzzles.

Darren finally comes clean to Annie when he admits that he may actually have male tendencies, like being just a little freaked out about the prospect of never seeing any other girl naked. Which brings him to the stellar idea of getting it “out of their system” in one night when each is given a “freebie” to do whatever (or whomever) they please, no questions asked.

When they reconvene, their curiosity of each other’s developments clouds their bright scheme and shatters their seemingly plastic marriage.

The ending is what will frustrate audiences most because of its inability to make a choice and say it loud and proud. This “it’s up to the viewer’s discretion” doesn’t work in a film that starts out with a moral in mind and ends in ambiguity.

Grade: C



The Freebie releases in select theaters Oct. 1.