The Freebie (2010)
Average Rating: 5.7/10
Reviews Counted: 26
Fresh: 15 | Rotten: 11
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 1,596
My Rating
Movie Info
A couple hatches a highly dubious scheme to put the spark back in their marriage in this independent comedy drama. Annie (Katie Aselton) and Darren (Dax Shepard) have been married for seven years, and they love each other as much as the day they were wed; they're affectionate, have fun together, and enjoy games such as crossword puzzle races. They would seem to have a perfect relationship, except for one thing -- they haven't had sex in ages, and seem to have lost all interest in making love
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Cast
-
Katie Aselton
Annie -
Dax Shepard
Darren -
Bellamy Young
Jessica -
Sean Nelson
John -
Marguerite Phillips
Emily -
Ken Kennedy
Ken -
Leonora Gershman
Lea -
Scott Pitts
Scott -
Ross Partridge
Bartender -
Joshua Leonard
Dinner Party Guest -
Frankie Shaw
Coffee Girl
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All Critics (26) | Top Critics (9) | Fresh (15) | Rotten (11)
A sly examination of the fragility of love.
Top CriticA not too funny, not too sad, largely improvised dramedy about two nice people who both succumb to the seven-year-itch and live to regret it.
Aselton gets a lot said in 78 minutes. I think the main thing she says is something never overtly spoken, that life is essentially a lonely experience - even when we're surrounded by activity, and even if we never shut up.
Though the dialogue explores some interesting territory, the couple remain elusive and a little dull; we never learn anything about them beyond the subject at hand, so they seem to exist in an odd, screenwriting-exercise vacuum.
Though its premise seems ripe for a high-concept studio yukfest, The Freebie is all the better for its low-budget, human-scale approach.
Katie Aselton has achieved the seemingly impossible. She's turned a movie about sex into a boring, talky snooze.
Aselton proves herself to be a formidable filmmaker with a keen eye for shame, making the picture something of a surprise, especially with its sense of marital realism.
Annie and Darren grow on us organically. The more they squirm, the more entertaining they are.
Love's fragile intangibles rarely feel so visible. Viewers with a wandering eye may feel like they've gotten something out of their system.
Something of an emotional-psychological cheat. The big emotional argument to which the film builds is inherently less interesting than what causes that action -- all of which remains unaddressed.
An intriguing premise rendered ultimately bland and moralistic.
Raw and emotionally truthful...an intriguing two-hander (mostly), about the dangers of temptation and the freedom of monogamy.
The chemistry between the stars makes them an easy couple to root for.
Aselton keeps it simple, and in the process makes an astute, powerful film.
With a sure hand both behind and in front of the camera, Aselton exposes a raw nerve within all of us, and even entertains in the process.
[Katie Aselton] grounds each scene in a sense of realism while tackling, sans preachiness, the universal issues of fidelity, trust, friendship and love with sensitivity.
The result is less of a movie than a sketch -- but a perceptive one
Audience Reviews for The Freebie
Super Reviewer
As a promising directorial debut, "The Freebie" is a bracingly honest look at relationships.(Even at one point when he is obviously lying, Darren is also telling the truth.) The central question is whether a relationship can survive without sex? And I know cynics and "The Object of My Affection" point out that all marriages devolve into friendships, but does that really have to be the case in Darren and Annie? Although as inferred later, this is only the sympton of a much larger ingredient that is missing from their marriage. Thankfully, this movie does not overstay its welcome in trying to find those answers, as it eventually develops a nonsequential structure starting with Annie's walk of shame.
Super Reviewer
-
- Darren: I has been a little while since... When was the last time that we...
- Annie: Um...
- Darren: After Riches... after Riches party?
- Annie: I don't think we actually had sex then, I think we talked about having sex.
-
- Lea: So yeah, let's talk about it. The fact that Will's not here, and I know you guys liked Will. And I love him, still, but it was a long time coming, and it's over, and this time it's for real. Last night I finally did it. I finally was honest, and I'm sad, and it was hard, and it's been a hard time. But now it's done. And now I get to go and be myself. I'm excited to be me, I'm exited to be me without Will. I'm excited to live alone. I'm excited to have my own food in the refrigerator. I'm exited to come home and not know what the fuck I'm going to do that night...
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A young couple decides to give each other a night off, no questions asked.
REVIEW
What The Freebie is is naturalistic drama done right. The story is simple: a happy couple decide to "fix" their bedroom apathy by taking a single night to go out and share some bone with a stranger. Both Katie Aselton and Shepard are fantastic, both as lovers and as people going through a mighty big challenge together. Much of the dialogue in the first two acts plays through in a way that makes you wish it was your relationship - the two leads seeming so uniquely happy together at times that you get the feeling that Aselton took from her personal life for the script. Things change a bit in the third act, as they should. Things get, well, heavy.
Knowing that the writer/director, Aselton, is married to actor/writer/director Mark Duplass, I half expected the film to have a Mumblecore vibe. Not really the case. The cinematography is solid, if simple, the picture always looking big and bright and, at times, quite stylized. And sure, the writing and acting are great, but it's the combination of clever editing and the believable bond between the two leads that really make this thing work.