By MICHAEL GINGOLD
A destination wedding may be one couple’s final destination.
Freestyle Digital Media gave us the first word that it will release NUPTIALS on North American digital HD Internet, cable, and satellite platforms February 13, then on DVD February 17. Written and directed by Sean Braune, it stars Ariana Marquis, Kevin McPherson Eckhoff, Annie Stone and Denis Davicino. The synopsis: “NUPTIALS tells the story of Hannah [Marquis] and Stephen [Eckhoff], a couple looking forward to what they believe will be the happiest day of their lives—their wedding. But they didn’t know that their destination wedding and honeymoon would unlock their deepest secrets and force them to confront the darkness that lurks in love. After arriving at a luxury resort, Stephen and Hannah begin to settle into the blissful patterns of their honeymoon, but Hannah is worried about Stephen’s distance and his tunnel vision on his painting. As he works on his paintings with a singular purpose, he begins to abandon her at the beginning of their new lives together. Hannah and Stephen are forced to confront what it means to be married on a journey into their unconscious worlds of dreams, nightmares, and fantasy. Are they trapped in their marriage? Why does it seem like they can’t leave their bridal suite? Who is the demonic Bellhop? And is there any way to escape the ‘trap’ of love so they can build a life together?”
“With NUPTIALS,” Braune says, “the goal was to make a ‘romance’ movie, but a very strange kind of romance—maybe even an ‘anti-romance.’ I hope that audiences will appreciate the film’s courage in asking hard questions about how men and women treat each other in relationships and will continue to talk about these issues when they leave the film and go back to their own relationships, fantasies, partnerships, or marriages.”
