Cleopatra's Second Husband (1998) Reviews

Jon Reiss made his feature directorial debut with this psychological drama. In Los Angeles, Hallie (Bitty Schram) keeps her photographer husband Robert (Paul Hipp) under her thumb, dictating sex on demand. She ignores Robert's weak protests when she allows friends of friends to occupy their house during their upstate New York vacation. Back in L.A., they find the couple let their fish die amid a messy house. Nevertheless, since inconsiderate Zack (Boyd Kestner) and sexy Sophie (Rhada Mitchell) haven't made much of an effort to find a place of their own, Hallie and Robert let them stick around -- despite the couple's crude manners and loud sex sessions. However, when Hallie sees Robert has fallen for Sophie, she explodes and exits. A few minutes later, Sophie also splits. Echoes of Harold Pinter's The Servant (1963) reverb and demented behavior rises to the surface as the two men then struggle for dominance. Reiss claims he found the premise for this script from a real-life incident when he loaned his house to filmmaker Amos Poe and came back some weeks later to find the fish dead. The title, says Reiss, is a reference to Marc Antony's relationship with Cleopatra. Shown at the 1998 L.A. Independent Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi