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Mar 05, 2015 By Sarah Winshall Web Exclusive

America Ferrara is best known for her role as the bookish yet charming protagonist on the popular ABC sitcom Ugly Betty. The first scene in her latest film, X/Y, directed by Ferrara’s husband, Ryan Piers Williams, plants us up close and personal. She is mid-coitus in case we had any doubt that she’s shed her squeaky clean image. What sets out to be a raw, uncensored look at modern love, quickly devolves (doesn’t it always?) into a tedious series of seemingly unrelated interactions that ultimately amount to nothing.

Ferrara plays Sylvia, a young woman going through a breakup with her longterm boyfriend, Jake, and probably a quarter-life crisis. The initial sex scene between Sylvia and Jake leads to an argument and then into their breakup. She’s been cheating on him. From here the film breaks out into segments, each following a character somehow linked to Sylvia and Jake as they travel through their lives in Brooklyn for a couple of days. Unfortunately none of these segments are particularly interesting: one man fights loneliness by sleeping with his friend; a friend of Sylvia’s gives her number to a barista; a model gets a coffee with another model. Aside from inhabiting the same community, these vignettes are not particularly connected. In the end we circle back to Sylvia and Jake when they cross paths for the first time since their breakup. It’s awkward and emotional for them, but by this time, the urgency of their drama is lost.

Aside from the heavy cloud of sincerity lingering over X/Y, the film lacks a clear point of view. Why these specific characters and moments are singled out is unclear. They are linked only through coincidental encounters and the general theme of “relationships.” To make matters worse, none of the characters are particularly memorable or likable, spending most of their screen time moodily looking out of train windows or wistfully tucking a strand of hair behind an ear. Ultimately, this series of unrelated clichés never builds to anything, and never builds a solid-enough foundation to carry through.

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Author rating: 2/10