Staying Alive

The classic Bee Gees song, Staying Alive, has supposedly saved many lives: its pulsing disco beat mirrors the correct rhythms for life-saving CPR. And if anyone's life needs saving right now, it's Marianne's. Happily married with two beautiful daughters, she discovers her husband, Hakon, is having an affair with a younger woman named Frida. Worse, he thinks he loves her. Suddenly Marianne, the wronged party, finds herself increasingly on the losing end. With nothing to rely on but useless and silly advice from her pregnant girlfriend and her parents (who she finds have their own "arrangements"), Marianne tries to plan her next steps in a hurt and angry daze. STAYING ALIVE is an honest, warm, and painfully funny look at how to move on when everything you thought was real turns out to be tinsel. With a heart as tender as a skinned knee, this aching and upbeat film proves that even when it all hits the fan, sometimes the good guys actually win. (Cleveland International Film Festival)