A relatively graphic documentary about charismatic Italian swingers should probably elicit more than a tepid shrug, right?
But for all its telling — and showing — of sex, “Bloom Up” never really gets going until its final few minutes. And that late-stage twist occurs during the rare scene in which everyone is fully clothed.
The movie’s middle-aged protagonists, Betta and Hermes, couldn’t be more likable. They’re charming, eloquent, and appear to be madly in love. Despite the fact that they’ve been together for years, they flirt happily while stocking shelves at the pet store they own, defer to each other respectfully in frank conversations for the camera, and share a sensitive dedication to their open marriage that seems to lack even a hint of defensiveness.
Both of them, in fact, have invited director Mauro Russo Rouge into their lives to prove that their polyamorous world “is beautiful, fun, made of normal, amazing people.” And indeed, they seem to be perfectly normal, and plenty of fun.
Their sex life, on the other hand, looks primarily exhausting. Although Rouge spends much of the movie shooting the parties they host with other couples and singles, the planning appears to be so much work that it hardly feels worth it.
Most of the film is built on a repetition of the same two types of scenes: swiping, texting, calling, considering and discussing, followed by experiencing. (Though the sex scenes aren’t quite hardcore, you probably wouldn’t want to watch this around anyone who’d be shocked if they were.)
Rouge tries to keep his camera as unobtrusively nonjudgmental as possible, while also turning the party scenes into gauzy half-fantasies set to ambient techno. But it takes so much effort to get to these dates, they half feel like a chore. The end result isn’t dissimilar to HBO’s ’90s show “Real Sex,” which was intermittently interesting, occasionally enlightening and often anything but sexy.
“Bloom Up” also suffers in comparison to last year’s insightful and similarly-themed doc “There Is No I in Threesome.” The latter was so packed with ideas that polyamory was just the kickoff to a range of experimentation. In contrast, Rouge (making his first documentary) seems unsure where to go beyond the initial, and hardly groundbreaking, notion of following a polyamorous couple around for a while.
Until, that is, it’s time to wrap things up. The surprising final act, which unfolds in an impactfully understated fashion, has all the emotion and humanity the film needs to expand beyond its primary concept. But waiting 72 minutes to get there requires a commitment many viewers may not be willing to make.
“Bloom Up” opens Aug. 12 in NYC and Aug. 19 in LA.
