Frank Sinatra recorded the song Love and Marriage, illuminating how steadfast the union is. Contradictions in Mr. Sinatra’s life aside, in the case of writer-director John Ainslie’s Do Not Disturb its “Drugs and Marriage.” A dark, literally biting, hedonistic journey of a married couple into the world of pleasure, pain, and human flesh in the banquet of relationship twists.
Chloe (Kimberly Laferriere) and Jack (Rogan Christopher) are traveling to Miami for their honeymoon. Their relationship is toxic in so many ways, brought forth in the dialogue of missed opportunities and their lack of money for a good hotel. This is a doomed union of people too familiar with each other. Chloe wants children and stability, while Jack has trouble with drug and drinking binges, plus holding a decent job. The couple also suffered a miscarriage before their trip to paradise started again. Jack is a reclamation project to be sorted out for Chloe, who is too deep in the relationship. The couple are at each other’s throats, literally in dialogue and even in some slightly forced sex. The common element between both people is their love of pleasure.
“…a doomed union of people too familiar with each other. “
What triggers the sexual, hedonistic behaviour is a wonderfully odd beach meeting with a ‘messed up, disheveled man who emerges from the sand. He approaches Jack and Chloe, who are alone on the beach, babbles statements, then dumps packs of drugs and sprays them with pink synthetic cocaine. In the best “Norman Maine” tradition of A Star is Born, he then walks into the sea and disappears.
Chloe and Jack also meet another vacationing couple, Wendy (Janet Porter) and Wayne (Christian McKenna). These folk are those vacation friends that one meets, speak banal things, smile, and hope that you don’t see them again, but you do. Turns out Wendy and Wayne have the closeted wild side and start to party with Jack and Chloe. The party gets intensely sexual but is stopped abruptly when Jack grabs Chloe and runs out, saying it’s over.
"…a twisted film that is well worth a look."
