The Trouble with Romance
credits:
Director: Gene RheeProducers: Gene Rhee, Jennifer Siebel, Emily Liu
Writers: Gene Rhee, Sharri Hefner, Mike Su
Cast: Roger Fan, Emily Liu, Sheetal Sheth, Jennifer Siebel
USA 2007 | 88 mins | HDCAM | English
IN PERSON (at select screenings): Gene Rhee, Roger Fan, Emily Liu, Jennifer Siebel
Director Gene Rhee follows up his hilarious short film THE QUEST FOR LENGTH (SFIAAFF ’02) with a much different, equally provocative film. In the atypical romantic comedy THE TROUBLE WITH ROMANCE, Rhee presents a quartet of vignettes on a disparate group of Angelenos exploring the challenges and heartaches that come with falling and staying in love.
Each story follows the inhabitants of different rooms in one hotel on the same evening. In the bathroom, a young woman looking for closure has an emotional conversation with her hallucination of an ex-lover, all while her new boyfriend waits behind the door. Down the hall, a husband and wife attempt to spice up their sex life, and a young man has his first encounter with a call girl. The heart of the film finds Roger Fan (BETTER LUCK TOMORROW) as a bumbling boyfriend who commits the ultimate faux-pas by inviting his stoner buddies to celebrate with him and his girlfriend Stephanie (Emily Liu) on their special night. Fed up with his immaturity and apparent lack of commitment, she dumps him before he can say a word. Can he still win her back?
With crisp pacing and solid performances, Rhee’s feature debut is heart-breaking in its sincerity of emotion. Rhee and his co-writers smartly complicate their initial set-ups with fresh twists and turns, each of which reveal more and more about the nature of love, and the ever-changing desires of the heart.
—Christopher Au
