Marmalade

half the fun of in writer/director Keir O’Donnell’s genre-twisting romantic noir/escapist road movie is puzzling out where and how exactly the truth lies.

Keir O'Donnell’s delightful feature debut “Marmalade” is the kind of comedy that zigs when you expect it to zag, like a carnival ride that catches you by surprise.

In essence, "Marmalade" pretends to be more dunderheaded than it is, then acts as if it's been smart all along, in a shift that takes it from insulting to incoherent.

Best to just lie back and let wash over you like a soft bubble bath.

It's watchable but forgettable

Marmalade loses steam in the third act due to a misguided need to interject twists and turns that undermine the strong efforts of it’s first hour.

This Marmalade ain’t sweet enough.

while the screenplay is desperate for another pass to help Marmalade make sense of itself, the entire film has this unapologetic and unrelenting sense of confident gusto

What begins as a familiar story about a frustrating dope turns into an exciting and sweet take on the bank heist subgenre and a robin hood story for the modern age.

Marmalade occasionally veers down the path of being too clever for its own good, but O’Donnell offers enough inventive twists and turns to keep this iteration of the lovers-on-the-run subgenre fresh and exciting before guiding it to a safe landing.