Things aren’t going exactly as planned for high-powered, Manhattan lawyer Louise (Meg Ryan). Her husband of 13 years, Ian (Timothy Hutton), announces to her that he’s leaving her for a younger woman (Kristen Bell). Taking things into her own hands, Louise holds Ian captive until he agrees to work on their marriage. The unexpected arrival of a gardener turned opportunistic thief (Justin Long) and Ian’s impatient mistress serve only to complicate the spiraling situation further.

Serious Moonlight has a terrifically pedigreed cast and crew, including stars Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell, and Justin Long, with Waitress writer Adrienne Shelly behind the screenplay and Curb Your Enthusiasm actress Cheryl Hines the firm directorial hand. The quality of the people involved helps elevate it to be the dark (OK, black) domestic comedy it aspires to be. Channeling previous unsettling films like War of the Roses, Fatal Attraction, and The Ref, Serious Moonlight allows Ryan to again challenge her fizzy “America’s Sweetheart” persona–to the point where her character, Louise, truly comes off as a sociopath. Yet Ryan’s great ability is that she makes Louise believable and sympathetic, even as she makes the viewer’s skin crawl (Ryan previously trod on this rocky ground in the “stalker comedy” Addicted to Love). Louise has been married to Ian (a nuanced Hutton) for 11 years and has accidentally discovered that he intends to leave her for the younger Sara (Bell). Before you can say “bunny boiling on the stove,” an enraged Louise takes Ian hostage, duct-taping him to the toilet in an attempt to force him to work on their relationship. And this bleak, absurd setup is only the beginning, as Sara suddenly appears, followed by a random, truly bad turn of events. Serious Moonlight can be uncomfortable to watch at times, but the raw emotions that underscore the characters’ actions are real, and the talented cast throw themselves into their unsympathetic roles with very sympathetic, and admirable, abandon.