neumu [ cinematronic ]




	XX/XY
	Austin Chick Mark Ruffalo, Kathleen Robertson, Maya Stange, Petra Wright, David Thornton 2002		Cole, Sam and Thea, the young man and two women who are crucial to "XX/XY," are drawn into a sexual/romantic triangle during their hedonistic college days in the early 1990s. As the film jumps 10 years forward, it posits that the members of this attractive, neurotic trio have not matured at the same speed, and certain issues between them remain unresolved. It has a soapy, angsty veneer, and an initial stab at visual flash is gratuitous, but the well-acted "XX/XY" gets its characters' interpersonal, male/female maneuvering just right: the mating dance, longing, selfishness and arrogance, and the sheer cluelessness about the opposite sex. Rampantly unlikable, the college-age Cole tries to convince Sam (Maya Stange) of his devotion while diddling Thea (Kathleen Robertson) at his first opportunity. But actor Mark Ruffalo ("You Can Count on Me") gives Cole depth and desperation beneath the amoral grasping. When aging versions of the characters — each with a new significant other — reconnect in New York a decade later, Cole and Sam readdress their problematic affair, and quandary is inevitable. In toto, "XX/XY" is an auspicious debut for writer/director Austin Chick.