In this new short comedy from Baltimore-based underground filmmaker Jimmy Traynor, Cupid is a bearded, raucous angel that arrives at the home of a high-strung single woman and helps himself to sandwiches and beer. Oh, yes, Cupid also has a mission of helping the woman find the love of her life. But the choice of a lover – a homeless man sleeping in an alley behind her home – seems more than a little baffling to the utterly confused woman.
“The Real Cupid” is a bit of a strange work – its compact running time never allows for depth regarding the back stories of the unlikely targets of Cupid’s handiwork, yet the film also seems to overplay the basic jokey set-up too quickly. The added presence of a slutty best friend who cannot see Cupid never really meets its full potential.
Nonetheless, the dialogue often sparkles with amusing commentary – Cupid says he wanted to be the Grim Reaper, but “Ralph in P.R. got that assignment” – and the chemistry between Jacob Le Doux as the good ol’ boy Cupid and Tiffany Yancey as the jittery woman being pushed into love compensates for the story’s rough patches. Traynor plays the homeless man, offering a degree of pathos to balance the film’s whimsical personality.
