ALL MY HUSBAND’S WIVES – directed by Caroline Labrèche – SPOILERS

Originally titled “Power of Three“, this complex and baffling mystery was filmed in Montreal in 2019 and is set in Jersey City, New Jersey. James Phillips‘ screenplay introduces seven fascinating characters and more red herrings than one might reasonably expect. In a scene near the end, “I Tried“, by Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics plays in the background and that seems to be important.

Alison (Erin Karpluk) is a marriage counselor. She married Dominick Whitford (Trevor Hayes) about a year ago, and after that she quit her job and started her own practice. One summer’s evening, Dominick calls for a cab to the airport, and at 7:30pm heads (Alison believes) for Panama where he works for a mining company. (He is gone for about two-thirds of each month.) Once in the cab, he puts his wedding ring in his pocket, tells the cabbie to go, not to the airport, but to Montgomery Street (no specific address). He buys a bouquet which prominently features a white flower, and at 8:30pm, while crossing the street, he is struck and killed by a hit/run driver.

The next morning, Alison is notified of her husband’s death and goes to the police station where Detective Gabriel Strickland (Joris Jarsky) tells her that a witness saw the car speed up before hitting Dominick, so it might not have been an accident. He also suggests that Alison’s husband might have been having an affair (but makes no mention of the bouquet of flowers). Alison visits the scene of her husband’s death, and, after that, his place of employment where she is told that no one with that name has ever worked there.

Alison is delayed by a slashed rear tire and when she finally gets home she is immediately tackled by Marla (Kate Corbett) who admits to the tire slashing and accuses Alison of having an affair with her husband. Marla is surprised to see Alison and Dominick’s wedding picture on the mantle, and appears devastated by the news of Dominick’s death. Marla explains that she married Dom five years earlier. Despite Marla’s aggressive self-introduction, Alison mixes cola with Dominick’s 40-year-old scotch and the two women have a drink together. (The scotch bottle is also a recurring character in the story.)

Later on, an angry Alison decides to give away all of Dom’s stuff. Marla, who seems quite needy, visits Alison again and while rummaging through a box of soon-to-be-donated clothes finds keys and a dry cleaning receipt in a coat pocket. These lead the pair to 1435 Carnavon Street, Penthouse 303 (a few blocks from where Dom was killed), and after entering illegally, they find closets full of Dom’s clothes along with a safe deposit box key (which Marla pockets). Then the woman who lives there (Cheryl played by Kelly Rutherford) comes home; angrily asks how they got Dom’s keys; and tells them she has been married to the guy for nine years. Cheryl’s building almost certainly has security cameras, but Detective Strickland never mentions them.

Marla knows a guy who does fake IDs, and Alison has him make one (giving herself the last name Passmore, which is t he name on the safe deposit box), then uses it to illegally accesses the box. It contains $30,000, three credit cards, and four passports (one each for Dominick, Marla, Cheryl, and Alison) and all with the last name of Passmore. Alison’s Passmore passport was issued on 24 May 2017 and has the (unusual) expiry date of 18 October 2027. The Passmore passport Alison used to access the box has an issue date of 12 November 2019 and an expiry date of 7 November 2029.

Detective Strickland (who seems unaware of the safe deposit box) informs the three wives that Dominick’s real last name is Volberg, and that he was born in Madison, Wisconsin. According to the detective, Cheryl is the only one who married a real person. Marla and Alison each married one of Dominick’s fake identities.

Alison soon discovers that Dom has a Swiss bank account with quite a lot in it, and consults her former fiancé (who is an attorney) about the proper way to get at the money. On his advice, she tells Marla and Cheryl about the account, but Cheryl, being the only legal spouse, refuses to share. (She starts out offering the others a small but substantial settlement but withdraws that offer when Marla insists on an equal split.) In the course of things, the very stylish Cheryl gets punched in the face and later has a bullet crease her left arm.

Was Dominick’s death an accident, or murder? What is the source of all that money in his Swiss account? Also, all three of Dominick’s wives are seen to wear wedding rings. If Dom bought those flowers for his other wife, why didn’t he substitute a different wedding ring for the one he removed?

All three of the wives make excellent suspects. Marla’s first husband was murdered about twenty years previously, and she tends to physically assault people. Alison once found her fiancé Graham (Brett Donahue) in bed with her best friend Gabby (Ksenia Thurgood) and fractured his skull with a squash racket. (He’s OK. He married Gabby and they now have two kids. Graham doesn’t appear to hold a grudge, but why does he agree so readily to advise his former fiancé?) Cheryl is suspect primarily because of how little we know about her, but she does like to wave a gun around.

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ALL MY HUSBAND’S WIVES can be streamed on DAILYMOTION.