Splitsville centers on Paul, a property developer, his wife Julie, a ceramic artist, and Paul's best friend Carey. Carey sleeps with Julie and confesses, triggering Paul's violent, destructive rage that damages the beachside home and injures Carey. Paul and Julie maintain an open marriage; Julie is untroubled while Paul reacts unpredictably. Carey reevaluates his own failing marriage to Ashley, who has been flagrantly cheating, and the couple experiments by opening their relationship instead of divorcing. The consequences of the affair ripple through both households, producing darkly comic chaos and strained attempts at reconciliation.
The wrecking begins when Carey (Marvin), Paul's best friend, ill-advisedly sleeps with Julie-and then, more ill-advisedly still, confesses it to Paul the next day. Paul and Julie have an open marriage; their relationship is as modern as their taste in architecture, and Carey, guileless to a fault, assumes that his friend won't mind. Instead, Paul reacts with a fury that all but blasts the roof off: walls are bashed in, furniture collapses, a window goes bye-bye, and some innocent goldfish lose their aquarium.
The tensions recede, sort of, but the effects of Julie and Carey's mistake ripple out in all directions. Julie, blessed with Johnson's cool reserve, has no qualms; this is the first time she's cashed in on her extramarital benefits, whereas Paul has been sleeping with other women for years-or so she thinks. Carey, for his part, is inspired to give his own failing marriage another chance.
Divorce seems an easy option, since they have no kids and no money-he's a gym teacher, she's a life coach-in tidy contrast to Paul and Julie, who have a mischievous young son and their (once) beautiful home. What unites all four is a willingness to experiment: before long, Carey and Ashley have tabled their divorce and opened up their marriage. The payoff is a drolly whirligig centerpiece sequence in which their small apartment is suddenly swarming with Ashley's boyfriends.
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