One day, Claire comes home dressed as "Lucia" and hopes that a bit of role-playing with Jonathan will inject a much-needed spark of romance into their relationship. Jonathan enjoys the exchange, but hurriedly pushes Claire off his lap when the dinner starts burning. He promises that one day soon, "Roberto" will join her on a business trip and make her dreams come true.
While on a trip to San Francisco, Claire spots a man at the hotel bar who looks exactly like Jonathan, except for his suave demeanor and "swinger" style of dress. She immediately thinks "Roberto" and makes strongly suggestive comments to the man, who follows her back to her room where they have wild sex. In the morning, before parting ways, Claire mentions that she has an upcoming business trip to New York and she hopes that Roberto can make another appearance.
After that, the two have some racy communications via instant messenger and during her New York trip, Roberto once again makes an appearance. This time, he calls her cell and gives her specific instructions about where to buy the dress she is to wear, where to eat dinner alone, etc., saying that he will be watching her every move. Once again, back at the hotel, they have passionate sex. He asks her who she wants him to be and she says Jonathan. Just Jonathan. She is awakened the next morning by Jonathan's special ring tone and as she is talking to him, she looks over and sees the man in her hotel bed. Mortified, she realizes she has made a huge mistake and throws the bewildered man out. Unfortunately, he has become smitten and will not go away as easily as this.
Simon Phillips (McFayden) continues to try to contact Claire, who has cut off communication with him. When he follows her to her home, he makes a startling realization, one Claire failed to mention. He is the spitting image of her husband. Now that things have become clear for him, he sets out to insert himself into her life, making a phony appointment with Jonathan seeking treatment for a schizoid wife. Finding their similar appearance amusing, Jonathan insists Simon join him for lunch with Claire. After this point, it becomes clear that Simon is one disturbed puppy as he manically pursues Claire and kidnaps Jonathan so that he can impersonate him.
After raping Claire in her home and facilitating Jonathan being committed to his own mental institution under the guise that the two have swapped places, Simon, Claire and Jonathan have an unlikely showdown at a remote cabin. The ending wraps up neatly, leaving bullet holes, emotional scars and an unsure future.
While the acting wasn't stellar, it wasn't awful either. At different times in the movie, I found Willa Ford annoying and Angus McFayden silly. First off, yes the guy is older than Claire, but he has a belly on him. I had a hard time taking him as a sex symbol type, even in his party guy attire. He just seemed a caricature of a sexy guy. Willa pursed her lips just a bit too much for my tastes. It got annoying. Also, these characters were a bit too stupid for their own good. However, for a movie that was straight-to-video, it wasn't half bad. There were some tense moments and I actually had a different ending in mind and I am somewhat glad they didn't go that route. It wouldn't have been quite as "Hollywood happy" as the actual ending and for a dark movie like this, you need a decent ending.
Is it worth renting? Eh, it's not half bad. It's not great, however. There is a fair amount of sexuality in the film, although I could have gone all my life without seeing McFayden's ass in the throws of his assault on Claire and been just fine. Ugh. Caveat emptor or shall I say, caveat rentor? Consider yourself warned.
