Zelma has been taught from a young age that falling in love with the right man and giving everything she has to him in as womanly a way as possible is the key to her long-time happiness. But as hard as she tries, Zelma constantly grapples with her inner self and society’s perception of who she should be and how she should behave. Through the years we see Zelma fall in and out of love, from selfish, glaslighting assholes to a seemingly idyllic and caring partner who harbors a secret that fractures their relationship. Through it all, we are guided along Zelma’s journey by the abstract presence of a sentient being known as Biology that explains how the chemical reactions within Zelma’s body shape who she is and how she reacts.

My Love Affair with Marriage is a charming and intelligent film that acts as a clever journey through a woman’s self-actualization similar in tone to Persepolis but with its own unique viewpoint and characterizations. While this film isn’t overtly autobiographical like director Signe Baumane’s previous film Rocks In My Pockets, it does still seem to channel a very personal narrative for Baumane but one that may resonate beyond just her family tree. Zelma is a fully fleshed out character who struggles with who she is versus how others like her mother, her husbands and others who enter and exit her life over the years want her to be. Zelma’s journey is both intensely personal yet surprisingly universal. My Love Affair with Marriage, while not devoid of dramatic and sad moments, still feels like a lighter film in tone than Rocks In My Pockets. Baumane infuses the film with a freewheeling animation style that takes what she did with her previous film and expands upon in a variety of interesting ways, particularly in the Biology sections which uses a very expressive style that sets it apart from the narrative sections. But even in Zelma’s more narrative-driven day-to-day, the animation feels like it is bursting at the seams, willing to distort reality to suit the point Baumane is trying to make. Baumane’s character designs appear initially a bit crude or awkward, but they are able to express a wide range of emotions within a given frame. The film is even more impressive given that much of it was animated by such a small group of people. My Love Affair with Marriage also benefits from having a larger voice cast as opposed to Rocks in my Pockets which was narrated pretty much exclusively by Baumane herself. This film actually includes more recognizable names like Stephen Lang and Matthew Modine in the cast, but the real star is Dagmara Dominczyk who plays Zelma with such a blunt whimsy that she really makes the character pop more than she might if Baumane had played her for instance.

MVD has provided a very nice, clean transfer that accentuates the lovely animation style very well. The smoothness of the animation itself can be a little variable at times, but the image quality never drops. For audio, we get both a DTS 5.1 surround track and a 2.0 Stereo track. Both are clear with no noticeable distortion. While the 5.1 track offers a little more incidental sound for better immersion, the 2.0 track will do in a pinch as well. The primary extra on the disc is a TED Talk-like presentation on the film by director Signe Baumane who walks us through each step in the film development process, from the conception of the story itself to the animation stage to the casting and recording and everything in between. It’s an excellent 1-hour presentation that gives you just about everything you might desire to know about the film.

With My Love Affair With Marriage, MVD has given us a relentlessly charming and eminently watchable film with a nice technical presentation and cool extra covering every aspect of the production. If you are a fan of indie animation like Persepolis or many of the films put out by GKids, coming-of-age relationship dramedies or just have an appreciation for a well-made story told with expressiveness and joy, this is a disc that is well worth checking out.