Festival

XX/XY

Mark Ruffalo and Maya Stange (right) are former lovers who reunite, and Kathleen Robertson is their sounding board in "XX/XY," from Austin Chick.

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Sexy first act, set in 1993, throws adventurous artist and tyro animator Coles (Ruffalo) together with two hot Sarah Lawrence undergrads, Sam (Maya Stange) and Thea (Kathleen Robertson). They behave as the lusty kids they are, skirting the edges of a menage a trois before Coles and Sam pair off. Tentatively over the course of a school year, the warm and deeply appealing Sam tries to push Coles to open up and be serious once in a while, but for him it's easier to keep things fun and on the surface. After a few months of this, Sam has had enough and one day she just quits playing his game and takes off.

While the two principals quickly establish themselves as well-rounded characters, Thea soon becomes the odd girl out; wild, sullen and misguided, she engages neither Coles nor Sam in ways that seem very meaningful, which dramatically marginalizes her almost from the outset and renders the role far less interesting than might have originally been intended.

Surprisingly, however, when the action jumps ahead eight years, it's Thea who has settled into normalcy, running a trendy Manhattan restaurant with husband Miles (David Thornton). Coles, having directed one unsuccessful feature film, now works for an ad agency and has been living for five years with the older Claire (Petra Wright), while Sam returns to Gotham after breaking off an engagement in London.

Lo and behold, when Coles and Sam chance to meet, they find the old flame still burns brightly. Claire all but catches them in the act but strings Coles along while he stews over what to do with his realization that he loves Sam after all. Will he make the right choice? Will he tell Sam how he feels before it's too late and she goes back to her Brit fiance? All the melodramatic questions are answered over the course of a fateful weekend in the Hamptons.

There is little new here, but Coles and Sam are readily recognizable and vulnerable characters who easily engage audience involvement, and the appealing Ruffalo and Stange make them come alive with vibrant, open-hearted performances. By contrast, Robertson's Thea is disappointingly one-dimensional, moving from dissolute college punk in the early going to convenient emotional sounding board later on. Wright makes the most of Claire's big opportunity to tell Coles what's wrong with him when the time is right.

Chick agreeably captures the feel and flow of on-the-move young professionals in New York with solid backup from his behind-the-scenes collaborators.

Camera (Duart color), Uta Briesewitz; editors, William A. Anderson, Pete Beaudreau; music, the Insects; music supervisor, Lynn Geller; production designer, Judy Becker; art director, Terrence Dunlop; costume designer, Sarah Beers; sound (Dolby), Jose Torres; supervising sound editor/sound designer, Robert Hein; assistant director, Patrick Gittes; casting, Ellen Parks. Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (competing), Jan. 11, 2002. Running time: 91 MIN.