Canadian filmmaker Bruce Sweeney's third feature plays like a cautionary tale of romantic relationships. Discontentment works its way between three buddies and their girlfriends of the young professional variety in Vancouver. Wryly humorous, this character study also exposes the humiliating underbelly of the unravelling relationship.

Our feckless threesome bring on their relationships' demise through a series of wrong moves. Waterproofing specialist Noah (an earnestly deadpan Benjamin Ratner) marries aspiring "Soft Country" singer Zipporah (Frida Betrani in luscious-but-vacant mode) in haste, he for the sex and companionship, she for the security, apparently. Nobody's certain about the odds on the marriage, least of all Noah's friends, lecturer Peter (Tom Scholte) and architect Shane (Vincent Gale), who are about to hit some stormy relationship weather themselves. Amidst all their wisecracking run the currents of growing malaise - early mid-life crises brought on by Noah's fear of growing old along, Peter's lust for a younger woman, and Shane's jealousy of his girlfriend's career.

What's surprising is that, despite being shot sympathetically from the men's perspectives, the guys are clearly responsible for their own excruciating downfalls. Shane's girlfriend Sarah (the rising Molly Parker) is an intelligent woman coming into her own, and Peter's partner Leslie (Nancy Sivak) seems relaxed into their domestic life. The unsteady and depressive Zipporah needs help, but comes off as pitiable in the face of Noah's rejection. The actors are well-balanced in their roles -- we can see the potential in all the relationships (though the writing is on the wall for Noah and Zipporah from the start), which is maybe what makes their failures so palpable.

There's a lot of laughs at the fools these guys make of themselves, but Sweeney affords them sympathy, too, as the shell-shocked survivors of the latest round of relationship war.