The One I Love (3 Stars)

This is a surreal mystery film. Ethan and Sophie are a young married couple who are going through a crisis after Ethan's infidelity. They're visiting a marriage counsellor who advises them to spend time at a remote cottage. It's actually two houses facing one another, a main house and a smaller guest cottage. So much room for one couple?

Ethan and Sophie sleep in the main house, but Sophie's curiosity leads her to check out the guest cottage. While there she has sex with Ethan. She returns to the main house and finds Ethan asleep. Did he use a short cut? She thanks him for the time they spent together, but Ethan denies having had sex with her. Sophie kicks him out, and he goes to sleep in the guest cottage. Sophie joins him later and apologises for her behaviour. Ethan goes back to the main house in the morning, and Sophie insists that she spent the night alone.

After a few more confusing experiences, Ethan and Sophie conclude that they have doppelgangers in the guest cottage. Whenever one of them goes into the cottage alone, he finds a copy of his partner, but when they go into it together nobody else is there. The doppelgangers are ideal copies of themselves, perfect and loving, so they decide to remain and take turns with them.

The film is 10 years old, so I can allow myself a few spoilers. Ethan finds evidence that other couples visited in recent years who also experienced doppelgangers. The Sophie doppelganger confesses to the real Ethan that their purpose is to make the couples fall out of love, so they'll remain in the cottage while the two doppelgangers take their place in the outside world.

This is where the film's mystery began to fall apart. The director has left things open so that the viewer can fill in the blanks, but I didn't like this. I want to be told what's happening. Are the doppelgangers alien invaders? Possibly. Is the marriage counsellor in on the conspiracy. Certainly. How are the couples supposed to stay in the cottage? Are they murdered? Are they whisked away to another world? There are so many possibilities. And if it's really a story about alien invaders taking over our world, why go to so much trouble? They could simply move into a town, go to church, make friends and blend in.

I enjoyed the film when I was watching it, but it left a dissatisfying aftertaste. I have no intention of watching it again, but I invite my readers to watch it and make up their own minds. If you can watch it; it's no longer available on disc or streaming. Maybe you can find it on Ebay.