Splendor is a film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 directed by Gregg Araki

Gregg Araki

Gregg Araki is an American independent filmmaker. He is involved in New Queer Cinema.-Early life:Araki was born in Los Angeles but grew up in Santa Barbara, California...

 starring Kathleen Robertson

Kathleen Robertson

Kathleen Robertson is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Clare Arnold in Beverly Hills, 90210 .-Career:Robertson started taking acting classes when she was ten, and had roles in local theater productions...

, Johnathon Schaech

Johnathon Schaech

Johnathon Schaech is an American actor, writer, and director.-Early life:Schaech was born in Edgewood, Maryland to Joseph, a Baltimore City law enforcement officer, and Joanne Schaech, a human resources executive. He is of German and Italian descent, and was raised Roman Catholic...

, Matt Keeslar

Matt Keeslar

Matt Keeslar is an American actor.Keeslar was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the son of Fred Keeslar and Ann Ferguson, who divorced in 1977....

, Kelly Macdonald

Kelly Macdonald

Kelly Macdonald is a Scottish actress, known for her role in the independent film Trainspotting and mainstream releases such as Nanny McPhee, Gosford Park, Intermission, No Country for Old Men and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2...

 and Eric Mabius

Eric Mabius

Eric Harry Timothy Mabius is an American actor known for his work as Daniel Meade on the ABC television series Ugly Betty. He also worked on the Showtime series The L Word and in the films Resident Evil and Cruel Intentions....

. The film narrates the lives of the characters Veronica (played by Roberston) Abel (played by Schaech) and Zed (played by Keeslar), and how a relationship forms between these three characters that is equivalent to a menage a trois

Ménage à trois

Ménage à trois is a French term which originally described a domestic arrangement in which three people having sexual relations occupy the same household – the phrase literally translates as "household of three"...

. It is likely the most accessible and mainstream of all the films directed by Araki.

Themes

Like many productions by Gregg Araki, the film deals with ambiguous sexuality, the problems of living within a modern world, and somewhat cynical or skeptical approaches to love and relationships or "normality". However, unlike Araki's other films, Splendor tends to bring a more mainstream aesthetic and plot-line to the screen, bringing on the tone of romantic comedy

Romantic Comedy

Romantic Comedy can refer to* Romantic Comedy , a 1979 play written by Bernard Slade* Romantic Comedy , a 1983 film adapted from the play and starring Dudley Moore and Mary Steenburgen...

, yet still with some of Araki's ironic and darker approaches to the portrayal of the human experience.

Production

The film is shot in high contrast, with strong lighting and the aesthetic of commercial cinema, and less recognizably of the rough, soft light of Araki's other films that can be more easily recognized as independent cinema. The film generally appears to be appealing to a mass market audience, and therefore Araki's previously more alternative production values are less present. It might be suggested that unlike in previous films, the relationship between Abel and Zed seems diluted in comparison to Araki's previous works such as in Three Bewildered People in the Night or The Doom Generation

The Doom Generation

The Doom Generation is a film by director Gregg Araki. Released in 1995, it stars Rose McGowan, James Duval and Johnathon Schaech as two teenagers and a 21-year-old punk drifter who become involved in a ménage à trois. It is the second of a trilogy of films known as the Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy,...

. Perhaps to appeal to a wider audience, there is a sense of greater heteronormativity and a female "chick flick" perspective. This is evident from the constant referral back to Robertson's character Veronica, where she comments on how her life and relationships are progressing whilst talking directly into the camera lens, with bright light reflecting off her eyes, as she details the bizarre situation she has found herself in.

Both Kathleen Robertson

Kathleen Robertson

Kathleen Robertson is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her role as Clare Arnold in Beverly Hills, 90210 .-Career:Robertson started taking acting classes when she was ten, and had roles in local theater productions...

 and Johnathon Schaech

Johnathon Schaech

Johnathon Schaech is an American actor, writer, and director.-Early life:Schaech was born in Edgewood, Maryland to Joseph, a Baltimore City law enforcement officer, and Joanne Schaech, a human resources executive. He is of German and Italian descent, and was raised Roman Catholic...

 have appeared in Araki's films before, Robertson in Nowhere

Nowhere (film)

Nowhere is a 1997 film by director and screenwriter Gregg Araki. It stars James Duval and Rachel True as Dark and Mel, a bisexual teen couple who are both sexually promiscuous....

(1997) and Schaech in The Doom Generation

The Doom Generation

The Doom Generation is a film by director Gregg Araki. Released in 1995, it stars Rose McGowan, James Duval and Johnathon Schaech as two teenagers and a 21-year-old punk drifter who become involved in a ménage à trois. It is the second of a trilogy of films known as the Teenage Apocalypse Trilogy,...

(1995). This reflects Araki's trend of utilizing the same actors across various films and projects, as with James Duval

James Duval

James Edward Duval is an American actor, who is most famous for his roles in the Gregg Araki trilogy—Totally Fucked Up, The Doom Generation, and Nowhere—in addition to Frank in Donnie Darko, Blank in May, Miguel in Independence Day and Singh in Go.-Personal life:Duval was born in Detroit, Michigan...

.