Genre: Drama/Comedy
Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
Writer: Dominic Wilkins
Cast: Colin Farrell, Kristen Wiig, Elisabeth Moss, Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Keira Knightley, Ellen Page
Plot: Dennis (Colin Farrell), a successful traveling salesman for a computer company, is sitting at a table in a chic restaurant, alone. A waiter comes to fill his glass of water and they don’t share a word, not even a smile. Dennis takes out his cellphone, still no texts. He looks at the door and doesn’t see anyone entering. He checks his watch and his cellphone again and he leaves the restaurant. He gets in his car and he drive back home. His wife, Megan (Kristen Wiig), is pregnant with their first child. They just learned about it and she’s pretty excited about it, him, not so much. She asks him why he was late and he tells her that he was waiting for a client at a restaurant and he never showed up. They get in their pajamas and go to bed, not sharing a single embrace.
The following day, Dennis goes in his office to get some documents. He meets his two friends Jack (Jason Bateman) and Greg (Michael Cera). They all share the same office. They have a conversation about the new computer model the company’s selling. Dennis checks his cellphone and texts someone named Lori. Jack asks him who he was texting and tells him he’s texting a client he’s meeting today. He leaves the office without telling his two good friends goodbye and gets in his car. He texts Lori again, but we can’t see what he’s texting. He’s frustrated that she doesn’t seem to text back to him. He heads to the restaurant anyway. He sits at a table and orders a single glass of hot water, waiting for his client to show up. Time has passed and there’s still no signs of Lori. He’s about to leave without meeting with her for the second time in two days when he finally notices her, Lori (Keira Knightley). They exchange some brief courtesies, something Dennis dislikes very much before talking about the new computer he’s selling. Lori fakes being interested, she has absolutely no interest in buying the computer. She just likes being around Dennis, so she listens and she smiles. Time passes again and they’re done eating. As always, Dennis pays for the woman and leaves a generous tip. He’s a man of habits and he’s always been that way. He helps Lori put on his coat and they leave together. He gets in his car with Lori and they drive away, Lori’s smiling.
The following morning, Megan is worried about Dennis, who was supposed to come back home yesterday, after all, his only sale call was in town. She’s used to him not being around for long periods of time, but she’s thinks he should be with her whenever he’s in town, especially with the baby coming. She takes the bus to meet Jack and Greg in their office, asking them about Dennis’ whereabouts. They tell her all the stuff they know about the new computer they’re selling, something that doesn’t bode well with Megan and her pregnant woman hormone hot mix. She lashes out at them and they finally tell her that they saw him texting a client yesterday. She isn’t satisfied by the answer, but she leaves anyway, not able to be around these jerks for one more second.
Dennis wakes up in a bed that isn’t his. He turns around and sees Lori, naked, sleeping beside him. Dennis’ been a heavy drinker for years, even though he’s been trying to quit. He can’t remember anything from last night, but he assumes he drank too much after he left the restaurant to go to Lori’s house. He gets up and gets dressed. Lori wakes up and asks him where he’s going, he tells her he must go home to his wife.
He goes back to his house and meets Megan, who just got back from her visit at the office, where she didn’t see her husband, but his two annoying colleagues. She asks her husband where he’s been and not being able to tell his wife the truth, he tells her that he went to see his parents and stayed over there. He apologizes and tells her that he should have brought her along with him. Dennis has been telling the truth ever since she knew him and she believes him. They eat breakfast together, with Dennis talking about the new computer at the job and everything he tells her, she already knew, thanks to her early meeting with Jack and Greg. After he’s done eating, he gets up and goes in the bedroom to pack a suitcase. He has to go out of town for a couple of days to go try and sell some computers. Megan’s used to that kind of trip, has he’s been leaving quite frequently since they’ve been together. He packs the essential, he’s a light traveler and kisses his wife goodbye.
Dennis stops at the office before leaving. He meets Greg and Jack who don’t seem to be working really hard to sell the new computer they’re always talking about, something Dennis tells them. They tell him that Megan stopped by earlier and she asks where he was, since he didn’t come back last night. He sticks with his lie and tells them he was at his parents’. Dennis leaves. Jack tells Greg that although he finds it odd that Dennis didn’t invite Megan over at his parents’, he never heard a lie coming of out of Dennis’ mouth, so both of them believed him.
Dennis gets out of his car and enters the mall, an unpopular spot for a business meeting that has always been proven successful to Dennis in the past. He sits in the food court, awaiting his client. Her name is Maggy. After Dennis orders a burger with no lettuce, tomatoes and no cheese at the nearest restaurant, she arrives, while he’s eating his plain burger, a meat patty and bread. Maggy (Elisabeth Moss) kisses Dennis on the cheek and sits there, while Dennis excuses himself to eat the burger he’s been waiting to eat for hours. He’s really hungry. Maggy looks at him eating in silence. After he’s done, he starts talking about the new computer at work, telling her the specifications and particularities of their new model. She listens to him very carefully, before she suggests to move the meeting to her home, where she says she would be more comfortable discussing. Dennis accepts and follows her to her car silently.
Maggy lives in a small house, chic but nothing too flashy. She hardly ever has a visitor, but always keeps her house really clean, you never know when someone’s gonna show up, they always arrive when you’re not ready, something she tells Dennis repeatedly, word for word, when he notices her house is very clean during the small tour. They settle to discuss the computer in the living room. Maggy closes the blinds, because she claims her neighbor is spying on her. She excuses herself once again and goes in another room, while Dennis waits patiently for his client to return. She comes out, dressed from head to toe in lingerie. Dennis gets up and tries to leave the house, claiming he has a wife he loves very much and he would never cheat on her. Maggy asks him what his problem and why he bothered even showing up to the meeting at all. She kisses him on the mouth as he’s trying to walk past her and this is where Dennis snaps. He succumbs to her kiss and they go to her bedroom. They continue to kiss as Dennis starts getting undressed. He closes the door and we can all know what they’re doing without seeing it.
The next morning, Dennis wakes up quietly and leaves the house without making any noises. He walks all the way to the mall and retrieves his car, with a ticket in the windshield for parking there overnight. He leaves the town and goes back home.
It’s Saturday and Dennis is out shopping with Megan, looking for baby stuff. They enter a store and start looking around. Dennis declines to buy everything Megan asks him to, he always try to find an excuse, too expensive, not safe enough, ugly and so on. The truth is, he doesn’t want the child to begin with, another one of his lies, who are starting to accumulate. A saleswoman comes at them and it hits Dennis, it’s Lori. He becomes embarrassed as she salutes him and quickly leaves. Megan doesn’t understand her husband’s shenanigans, but keeps talking to Lori. Dennis watches them from distance, hoping Lori won’t rat him out. Megan finally leaves and joins Dennis. She asks him what was wrong with him and quickly answers that nothing is wrong.
On Sunday night, Dennis receives a text from a woman named Jessica. She wants to meet him to buy a computer. She once did business with him and was hoping to see him again, to buy a new computer. Things haven’t been going really well in the sales department for a while, so he accepts. He tells the news to his wife and leaves with his suitcase.
The following morning, after much deliberation, Megan finally decided to go visit his husband’s colleagues once again. She wants to ask them a question. Once she’s over there, they want to talk to her again about the new computer model, but quickly denies, replying that they’re lame. She asks them if they can open Dennis’ computer for her. They argue whether they should do it or not in front of her and quickly conclude that they shouldn’t deny the request of a pregnant woman. She tells them she thinks Dennis is cheating on her and wants to find proofs that he does. They reply that it would surprise them, but they’re willing to do it, if it’s what she’s asking. Greg suggests they start with his browsing history. It proves to be the right spot, when they see that he’s been visiting a site called MeetSomeoneInYourArea.com. Greg quickly says that he’s sure he’s cheating on her now, while Jack note it’s a good way to get clients, their new computer isn’t really good anyway, so that may explain why nobody was interested in having it for their business.
Dennis knocks on the door of Jessica’s house, only to discover it’s not Jessica, but Elena (Ellen Page), a former client he already slept with. Surprise, she’s pregnant. She grabs his arm and drags him inside the house. She reminds him about their little encounter about 7 months ago. She says she intends to keep the child (obviously) and want child support for the future baby. Dennis doesn’t know what to say, so he politely declines. Elena is furious and starts screaming. She says Dennis is the father and must pay for everything he’s done. She tells him that he probably fathered many children, given his preference. The innocent Dennis says he likes children and he will look what he can do to help support her child, just an excuse to get the hell out of there.
Two days later, Dennis has been calling sick to avoid going back to work, not wanting to run into another one of his previous partner and surprisingly find out they’re pregnant. His discuss with his wife and tells her that she could buy anything she wants for their baby and that he was wrong the other day, acting foolish because he was too excited to welcome a baby and was like in a phase of denial. Megan tells her she has a surprise prepared for him with the guys from work. Dennis tells her he’s looking forward to it and he goes to take a shower. He sits on the ground with the shower running and he cries for a long time.
The night has come, and Dennis is driving around town with Megan. They stop at a community center. She puts something over Dennis’ eyes and she takes him by the hand. They slowly make their way up the stairs, where Dennis almost fell over and tried to take off his mask, only to be reminded by Megan to keep it on. He enters in the lobby and Jack and Greg are there to greet him. They still want him to keep the blindfold on. He enters a room and we cannot see what’s inside, as the camera is focused on Dennis’ face. They finally stop walking. The camera zooms out and there’s a banner with a clever message on it : Face the truth, asshole. There’s dozens of women in the room. He takes his blindfold off and finally faces the truth. Lori, Maggy and Elena / Jessica are there, so are other women. Dennis starts to cry and looks at his wife who hits him. Nobody’s talking. Megan takes something out of her purse and hand them over to her husband. It’s divorce papers. The hits him again, calling him a liar and other profanities before leaving. Each of the women he once slept with call him something degrading and the camera slowly zooms on Dennis’ face, who’s crying, his life is destroyed.
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