Mark Reviews Movies: SIGNIFICANT OTHER

Significant Other, Paramount+

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 7, 2022

A seemingly happy couple goes camping in the woods, and problems arise. That's the short and vague of Significant Other, co-writers/co-directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen's twisty little film about the particulars of a romantic relationship and something else entirely. The "something" here turns out to be pretty obvious, but the way the filmmakers play with the concept certainly isn't.

The opening shots more or less give away the foundation of that other idea. Above a forest in the Pacific Northwest, some object falls from the sky. In those woods, a deer is minding its own business and chewing away on some food, unaware of the slimy tentacle-looking thing approaching it from behind. The end of the appendage opens up, revealing some smaller slimy digits of sorts, and that's the end, apparently, of the deer.

"Apparently" is the key word there, not only for the fate of the deer, but also for how Berk and Olsen operate their story. Things are as they seem for a bit, such as how we start believing this to be some sort of horror tale about an alien creature, only for the story to reveal it's about another idea—maybe, possibly, for a certain other amount of time, at least, before some other or previously established idea to emerge or re-emerge.

We might forget the idea of the alien or keep it off to the side for now, as the story introduces Ruth (Maika Monroe) and her boyfriend Harry (Jake Lacy). They're driving to that same vast expanse of forest to go hiking and camping. There's a playfulness to their relationship, as Harry turns up a familiar song, starts singing along, and realizes he woke up Ruth from a nap. After apologizing and turning down the volume, he twists the nob when the chorus arrives, which is funny or irritating or both, depending on one's point of view.

If this relationship looks happy and fun, there is that other possibility that maybe it's not so much. After all, Ruth doesn't want to go camping. She hates traveling in general, but after dating for about six years, Harry is thinking about all the memories the two could have when they're 80, still together, and reminiscing about the adventures of their younger days.

Harry seems like a nice guy. Maybe he is. Maybe the bit with the radio shows him to be unthoughtful. Perhaps all the talk about them growing old together is something sweet, or possibly, he knows he's hitting a nerve with Ruth, who has made it clear that she's not interested in marriage—on principle, though, and not because of Harry specifically.

Her parents divorced when she was younger, and Ruth saw firsthand what "locking" oneself to another person can do. The very thought of such things can trigger a panic attack for her, and it's not long into their trip, in which Harry might be a little too jokey about making Ruth set up a tent without any experience in doing so, that the boyfriend triggers one in her.

The tension here is unmistakable, and since Monroe and Lacy play these roles with clear and natural ease, the whole film seems to relax and falls into the rhythm of the couple's questionable ups and increasing downs. If not for a pair of reminders about the deer from the opening and its not-as-apparent-as-it-might-have-first-seemed fate, we very well might forget that something with a dark, gooey tentacle is somewhere out there in the woods.

Berk and Olsen's screenplay is cleanly divided in half, with the first section detailing how this relationship looks on the outside and begins to make it obvious that things aren't always as they look. It works, not only because of the performances, but also because the filmmakers take the time and make the effort to see this romance from both sides of its participants. At a certain point, the relationship reaches something of an impasse, as the only thing that Harry wants directly conflicts with the one thing Ruth doesn't.

The second half, then, carries through that idea that things aren't always as they look on the outside, and there's certainly a case to be made that, dramatically, the story doesn't follow through on the relationship it has dedicated some time to establish. That's technically true, although not because Berk and Olsen introduce another couple (played by Matthew Yang King and Dana Green), a pair of fellow hikers who arrive in the aftermath of the first of the narrative's more notable surprises.

Those other two characters are important, in as much as there's definitely some suspense in their presence and they witness the story's second big revelation. As for whether or not they're present for the third, it's more important to note how capable Berk and Olsen are in keeping those surprises coming, even though we should and might see them approaching a mile away, and finding different ways to approach the results.

Some of the resulting second half is pretty familiar, in that it involves some fighting and chasing and mind games, and some it isn't, such as how wickedly amusing it can be. The dynamics of the central relationship of Significant Other may change—to say the least and put it mildly. Even so, the idea of it continues, expands, and is distilled to some essence of love—or, at least, what one character believes that should be. That's what this conflict, with or without the alien, has been from the start, and Berk and Olsen are clever in how they tell that story in an unexpected way.

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