"The Climb" -- Movie Review

 

This week at MoMA Film, I streamed the comedy “The Climb”, starring and co-written by Kyle Marvin and Michael Angelo Covino (who also directed). 

Synopsis

When a man sleeps with his best friend’s fiancée (twice!), will their friendship survive?

Story

During a biking race in France, Kyle (Kyle Marvin) informs his best friend Mike (Michael Angelo Covino) that he’s going to marry his girlfriend Ava (Judith Godrèche).  Unfortunately, Mike uses this opportunity to inform Kyle that he probably shouldn’t marry Ava – because he’s already slept with her.  Understandably, this infuriates Kyle, who subsequently finds out that Ava really does have feelings for Mike and may not be that into Kyle after all.  As it turns out, Kyle and Ava cancel their wedding – and eventually, Ava winds up marrying Mike instead.  Some time later, however, Ava incurs an untimely death and at the funeral, Mike and Kyle reconcile. 

As time goes by, Mike wallows in the misery of his loss.  Kyle, on the other hand, rebounds amazingly, finding a new girlfriend in Marissa (Gayle Rankin).  Marissa and Kyle have something of an unorthodox relationship – she bosses him and orders him around, which winds up causing Kyle to become uncontrollably sexually aroused.  They plan to get married, but hold off on making the official announcement to his family until they gather together for Thanksgiving dinner.  By Christmas, Kyle has forgiven Mike and invites him to spend the holiday at his family’s house – where everyone is shocked by his appearance and behavior.

Later, Kyle and Marissa decide to go on a skiing vacation – with Mike tagging along, much to the disgruntlement of Marissa, who genuinely can’t stand her fiancé’s best friend.  One fatal night when they are gathered at Kyle and Marissa’s bungalow, Kyle has a little too much to drink and passes out.  This allows Mike and Marissa to spend some time alone together; despite rebuking Mike’s initial advances, Marissa winds up sleeping with him.  On the day of their wedding, Mike bursts into the church and objects to their union, announcing that he’s already been with Marissa.  Will Kyle still marry Marissa?  And regardless of whether he does or not, what impact does this have on his friendship with Mike?  

Review

Let’s face it – 2020 has been a year where there’s been precious little about which we could laugh.  However, there’s some good news for fans of comedy:  “The Climb” is one of the funniest movies that has come along in quite some time.  If you want to elevate your spirits to start 2021, “The Climb” is the way to do so.  Perhaps the best way to describe this film is to say that if you take one of Woody Allen’s better screenplays and have it directed by Martin Scorsese, this is what you get. A somewhat incongruous combination?  Sure.  But somehow, it manages to work.  One can only hope these two will collaborate on more comedies in the future because they make a great team. 

The cleverness in “The Climb” lies in how Covino and Marvin have taken the genre of the buddy comedy and flipped it on its ear; you might say that this is a bromance with so many extra doses of toxicity that these two men are best frenemies forever.  Mike and Kyle are hopelessly broken people, but magically, they are broken pieces that perfectly fit together, much like a yin and yang.  In the end, they stay friends in part because they need each other – but also because no one else will have them.  Whether or not the movie has a happy ending may be open to interpretation – but it certainly suggests that there may be a sequel.    

Following the movie, an interview with the filmmakers was streamed.  They said that very little of the characters in “The Climb” are autobiographical.  Michael said that the idea originated from the relationship between a friend and his ex-girlfriend; this led to the opening scene of the film where the two friends are on a bicycle – which was originally filmed as a short that they subsequently used as a “Proof Of Concept” to make the full-length feature film.  He added that for the past decade, independent features have used this method to use effectively as a “calling card” in order to attract potential investors in the longer form – this has basically become the model for the industry.