The Trouble with Romance (2009)

17% of critics liked it
(12 reviews)
57% of users liked it
(1,131 ratings)

A hotel plays host to four couples who are having problems coping with their relationships in a variety of ways in this independent comedy drama. In one room, a young man who has had bad luck with women is spending the night with a hooker, which proves very uncomfortable for both of them. Elsewhere,… More A hotel plays host to four couples who are having problems coping with their relationships in a variety of ways in this independent comedy drama. In one room, a young man who has had bad luck with women is spending the night with a hooker, which proves very uncomfortable for both of them. Elsewhere, a married couple who think the thrill is gone from their sex life decide to add some variety by inviting another woman to join them for the evening. In room number three, a woman who often laments her bad taste in men argues with her former beau about her current significant other -- except that the former lover is only present in her imagination, she's in the bathroom, and her new man is listening to her on the other side of the door. And a couple are planning to spend their anniversary together until the man gets the bright idea of bringing one of his no-account buddies along, much to the woman's annoyance. Starring Kip Pardue, Roger Fan, Jennifer Siebel, Jordan Belfi, and Emily Liu, The Trouble With Romance is the first feature film from writer and director Gene Rhee. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: R, 1 hr. 28 min.
Directed By: Gene Rhee
Written By: Gene Rhee, Sharri Hefner, Mike Su
Genres: Drama, Romance, Comedy

In Theaters: Feb 27, 2009 Wide
On DVD: Apr 6, 2010

Critic Reviews

John Anderson, Variety
Very little that anyone here says, or does, has the slightest connection to any known reality, and if a film is going to perform an autopsy on love, the corpse should at least be recognizable.
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times
An airless, fragmented feature that's been kicking around since 2007.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Ever fast-forward through a late-night cable romance just to get to the good parts? This amateurish relationship dramedy features all the stuff you'd skip, and nothing else.
Fred Camper, Chicago Reader
The performances are convincing, and director Gene Rhee does a good job of outlining the messiness of human affections here, showing how we don't always know what we really want or how to get it.
Nick Pinkerton, Village Voice
The roaring void of talent doesn't stop.
Avi Offer, NYC Movie Guru
Often drags with poorly developed characters, awkward pacing and stilted dialogue that has no new or refreshing insights about love, romance or modern relationships.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
Adds nothing new or fresh to our understanding of sexual politics.
David Noh, Film Journal International
Omnibus Hell, decidedly not romantic, and reaching an absolute nadir with a scatological sequence to (hopefully) end them all.
Anna King, Time Out New York
If He's Just Not That Into You is a film for women who want to be lied to, then The Trouble with Romance offers a conniving counterpoint for men.
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze
This unsexy quirky quartet of talky tales, is a mixed bag of fantasy stranger sex in a threesome with Frisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom, um, selling her seat no less, elevator existentialism, and all around bad relationship karma.
Nick Schager, The Screengrab
A Cinemax skin flick without the skin.
Joseph Jon Lanthier, Slant Magazine
Actorly diarrhea and writerly constipation are the frequent bane of subpar indie flicks, but in Trouble with Romance these flaws are almost instructively exacerbated, like an inverted Syd Field handbook on amateurisms to avoid.