Sometimes the relationships we forge end up creating a box around us. As we get older, inflexibility sets in, constrictions grow like wild roots; weeds overtaking the garden, bad habits poisoning the well of familial trust and security. Psychological shorthand forces us to categorize and cement versions of ourselves and others: he is always this way, this is just what she does. The boxes can be tiring, maddening even, and at times impossible to break out of, no matter the sincerity of effort or number of attempts. The Killing of Two Lovers starts in a literal box. Framed at the square 4:3 aspect ratio of the silent-era and shot under the cautious eye of cinematographer Oscar Ignacio Jiménez, our characters are immediately imprisoned, stuck in a box of their own making; their own metaphorical jailers.

Standing over a bed where his wife and lover lay sleeping, pistol drawn, a jealous rage brewing, David’s box resembles the prison cell he’ll almost-certainly be spending the remainder of his days in if he pulls the trigger. Breakout writer and director Robert Machoian teases audiences with the tension of this opening scene as much as he does with the title of the film itself, which promises that a violent reckoning awaits. David (Clayne Crawford in a raw, transfixing turn) does not pull the trigger but nor can he come to terms with the wreckage of his relationship with separated wife Nikki (Sepideh Moafi).

With four kids and a bumpy history that started with a high school pregnancy, David and Nikki have decided upon a trial separation. During this time, they’ve agreed that they can see other people, much to David’s obvious chagrin. Nikki has taken that step but perhaps a little too far, too fast – particularly, for the sake of her angsty and highly-aware teenage daughter Jess (Avery Pizzuto). As David tries to figure out a way forward, he cannot look past the arrival of her new lover Derek (Chris Coy), their relationship a dragon David has convinced himself he must slay, for the sake of his family.

With a decade of short films under his belt, Machoian writes his characters with empathy and verve; complicated but misguided, we sympathize for and fear David, who we’ve known from the outset is unhinged enough to stalk over his sleeping wife and lover, loaded gun drawn. And yet in quiet moments, David reveals a softer side when, for instance, he’s singing Nikki an apology song he wrote or trying to connect with his kids through the challenge of separation. While he could easily make a villain of one half or the other here, he instead humanizes David, Nikki, and their four children, all of whom sincerely hope to improve their circumstance, whether that ultimately leads to them being together or not.

In The Killing of Two Lovers, Machoian’s camerawork mimics the relationship he’s built onscreen: as static and immobile as their romance, as drawn-out as the stank of a faltering marriage. The camera lingers, still as a deer in headlights, often in pointedly long takes that draw out the tension of what already is and what could be. Like the steady camera, Chekov’s gun remains, a reminder that jealous tendencies can boil over to murderous violence in the flash of a muzzle; one moment overheated irrevocably. That tension is ratcheted up even further by a minimalist score from sound designer Peter Albrechtsen of pops and clicks, an anxious soundscape that resembles the loading and firing of a revolver, for reasons that are all too clear.

Throughout it all, Crawford is outstanding; a desperate, broken man of many faults but not without his empathy and effort. As he confronts the uncertainty of his relationships – with Nikki, with his father, with Jess and the boys – his grueling marriage story takes sinister turns, always edging towards the killing that looms in the film’s title. As the strain between David, Nikki, and Derek bubbles and balloons to an inevitable and breathless confrontation, the question becomes not how love dies or how love can be resurrected but how is it killed.

CONCLUSION: A powerfully recalcitrant ode to romantic love lost and the broken families in that wake, ‘The Killing of Two Lovers’ is an intense human drama that showcases a powerful Clayne Crawford performance and a breakout stage for writer-director Robert Machoian.