eCupid (2011)

“Marshall” - or “Marsh” to his pals (Houston Rhines) lives with his boyfriend “Gabe” (Noah Schuffman) but their lives are now pretty much going through the motions. There’s no sex, too much work and their priorities have become a bit stale. He’s browsing on his laptop one evening when he encounters a site that offers him a solution to his tired existence. He signs up and next thing he knows, boyfriend “Gabe” knows how he feels and, dejected, moves in with a couple of their friends. Unbeknownst to “Marsh” this app is now manipulating his entire life. It’s fixing him up with dates, hosting parties and generally making a nuisance of itself whilst he tries to juggle the pressures of his job with his pretty obvious desires to get his “Gabe” back. Jeopardy? Well no, not really; nor is the much by way of notable acting nor writing here as the story unfolds. It does, however, have quite a powerful messages for those cynics amongst us who question just how dependent people now are on their computers and the internet when it comes to our daily lives. We arrange and cancel by text message; we create and change our relationship statuses as if we were turning a page on a calendar and when it comes to actually making an effort when the Sheen has faded a little, well again we seek refuge amongst the 0s and 1s. This is quite fun at times in illustrating the impotence of “Marsh” and also at the readiness of “Gabe” to take the easy option and not to try to work for what even a blind man in a snowstorm at 3am could see was what they both wanted. It is old hat, has it’s fair share of gay stereotypes and offers nothing new, but it just might resonate, especially if you like your Merlot from “Falcon Crest”.