MQFF NOTES: Portrait of a Serial Monogamist (2015, Dirs. Christina Zeidler, John Mitchell)

You'd think that if you were going to build a film around a middle-aged arts journalist with a commitment phobia, you'd want to put some effort into making sure she acted like an actual journalist and that she worked within an arts community that felt like a community of actual artists.

And you'd probably want to clarify why her commitment issues only kicked in after five years of being in a relationship or at least why she elected to end it this time around (the title here Portrait of a Serial Monogamist seems to point to a repeated pattern - there must have been a string of five year relationships).

If you are happy to forgo all these motivation and reality checks, you'll find a film that pretty much trades on charm, with its fourth wall breaking lead Diane Flacks taking on the bulk of that offensive. She gets the film about 50% there on that front. The quirky band of lesbian friends could possibly squeeze out another 10%.

Based on these rough estimates, about 60% of the jokes hit. That's not a bad ratio, I guess, except that on the effect is more like 100% of the jokes being delivered to 60% of their potential. You can see where the funny is supposed to be coming from but it just doesn't.

Again, I'd put that down to the fact that nothing here is believable. Especially not the emotions at play. And what's a relationship dramedy without the emotions?

Nope.

★★

Trailer:

Portrait of a Serial Monogamist screened as part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2016.

You can check out other films from the festival here.