Being surrounded by people in their late 20s early 30s there is a clear shift from casual dating to people wanting to find their life partner. For many of them, it is a serious search, and for others the idea of a long term commitment is terrifying. Some might say that they have Philophobia: Or the Fear of Falling in Love but most are overexaggerating or simply have a fear of commitment. I believe the main character falls into this category and does not have philophobia, which puts the film, and its title, in an awkward position. mediocrity

After 7 months of being together, Dani feels like it is time for Damien to meet her mother but he isn’t so sure about it. For Dani this is the last straw in their relationship of him being emotionally distant and unable to show public displays of affection. While Damien is still reeling from the loss of his girlfriend, his high school best friend arrives in town and wants to see all the sites. While trying to keep it together Damien finds out that his best friend plans to propose to his high school sweetheart, which sends Damien into a spiral. Struggling with his emotional baggage, Damien begins to see ghostly images that aren’t there and starts to lose his grip on reality.

With the simple premise of a man who is haunted, literally, by the idea of marriage, one would think that there would be no need for filler. On the contrary, this film feels like one barely connected event to another with the whole situation becoming incredibly repetitive. Damien goes to a location, meets a new character, has meltdown, recovers, rinse and repeat to the point of pure tedium. The most painful part is that there is a good movie buried under the nonsense, the concept alone is a great idea. This is an idea that could have made a wonderful short with Dani leaving and Damien being haunted by all the ideas of marriage alone in his apartment.

Speaking of Damien, the most unbelievable part of the film is the idea that he would have a girlfriend, let alone friends. From the start he comes off as selfish, inattentive, and emotionally distant, and none of that changes until he has his “epiphany” moment. One could try and explain this away claiming his philophobia, but he is this way to almost every character. At one point Damien is interviewing his best friend for his podcast and starts to record him talking about his relationship going through a rough patch and baiting him into saying it is her girlfriend’s promotion. This moment is early in the film and could have been resolved with Damien growing but he never shows improvement until the plot demands it.

In the end, this movie just feels like wasted potential covered in repetitive film making, weak characters, and neon lighting. Round Damien in a way that his issues lie within his character’s inability to love instead of making him look like a simple selfish douche. Limit the characters so we have people to emotionally connect with, people to care about, and not a gaggle of one-note characters. Less is more when it comes to complicated subjects such as philophobia and their effect on relationships, I imagine it can be a horrifying situation to be in and I wish this film explored it at all.