My Open-Minded Wife

Despite misgivings about the photographer, the Catholic League Book Club agreed to his suggestions about the shoot for their publicity photos.

My Open-Minded Wife made its screen debut in 2004 at the Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. Directed by Richard Morecock, the film concerns itself with the relationship, and eventual marriage, of a man and a woman who are polar opposites, and the conflicts that arise.

Eric (portrayed by Rod Longman) and Jennifer (Fifi Bangs) meet at a Yale University legal club. Eric, who is from New York, is a socialist, while Jennifer is a hardcore Republican and an active campus campaigner supporting America's involvement in the Iraq War.

The film follows the couple's struggle to find common ground, grapples with their vastly different upbringings, and strives to find an answer to the engima of truth in history, and how it informs the present. Just when the couple's attraction to each other is about to be compromised by irreconcilable difference concerning American foreign policy, another person is thrust into their lives in bizarre circumstances. An event which destroys the paradigm of hate and smashes the shells these two people have been hiding under. 

The film is intensely cerebral, and risks bogging down in intellectual dialogue and the interminably held close-ups insisted upon by Morecock. Thankfully, though, the chemistry between Longman and Bangs keeps the film interesting and human -- almost in biological detail.

For a first feature, My Open-Minded Wife is an incredible achievement, highlighting the importance of dignified dicussion informing opinions, destroying narrow-minded dogma, changing perspectives and ultimately finding love in a state of enlightenment, acceptance and bliss.

My Open-Minded Wife is available at selected stores or via the internet.