A struggling actress forges an unusual family unit with two separate boyfriends in this omantic comedy from indie auteur Gregg Araki. Veronica (Kathleen Robertson) hasnt had a decent date for a year, but one Halloween she meets not one but two perfect guys: Zed (Matt Keeslar), a ock drummer who does her on the floor of a club bathroom after his show, and Abel (Johnathon Schaech), an affable ock critic and would-be novelist, who seems more interested in connecting with her soul than her private parts. Unable to lie to either guy about her attraction to both of them, Veronica soon convinces them to share her. Eventually, the unemployed Zed and the underemployed Abel even move in with her, resulting in kinky sex and domestic bliss. Trouble comes calling, however, in the form of an unplanned pregnancy -- and in the person of Ernest (Eric Mabius), an aptly named TV director, who gives Veronica her big break and the chance to play house and raise her child in a monied, more normal environment. Its soundtrack filled with the directors trademarked mixture of shoegazer drone and electronic bliss, Splendor premiered at Sundance in 1999. Arakis first outing after the completion of his Teen Apocalypse Trilogy, the film reunited him with two actors who had appeared in that series: Schaech (The Doom Generation) and Robertson (Nowhere). Both of those earlier characters participated in unorthodox romantic tableaux similar to the one documented in Splendor. Robertson, in fact, would return to the world of the ménage à trois with 2002s XX/XY. Offscreen, the actress raised eyebrows after beginning a romance with her openly gay director. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
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