Amir (Samrat Chakrabarti) has made his career out of breaking hearts, that is, on behalf of other people. As a “relationship termination specialist,” the 29-year-old bachelor zips around Los Angeles doing his clients’ dirty work—the dumping, reclaiming of gifts and possessions, the whole humiliating dance—in exchange for a service fee. The job is not without perks, though. Case in point: when the newly dumped women require consoling, Amir is more than happy to act as both the shoulder to cry on and the rebound candidate.

There’s a catch: as the last single friend in a clique of couples, Amir has positioned himself as the odd man out. Tucker—his best friend and former partner in crime—returns from abroad engaged. Thanks to Tucker’s New Age-y bride-to-be, Amir cannot be best man because of bad “relationship karma.” Amir finds himself not only left out of the group, but booted from the wedding party outright. It seems everyone has moved on and evolved, but him.

Amir dejectedly returns home for Thanksgiving only to discover that his presence has been no more missed by his family than his friends. Enter British cousin Zara who happens to be visiting in the last leg of her travels across the country. At the end of the weekend, she hitches a ride with her cuz as he drives back to L.A. They become fast friends, keeping each other company out of their mutual loneliness. Zara goes so far as to pretend to be Amir’s girlfriend to relieve his reputation as a romantic pariah in front of his friends. But what begins as a harmless deception gets out of hand when Amir grows more attached to his cousin than deemed socially acceptable.

It is at this most uncomfortable juncture that the narrative manages to sidestep the predictable pitfalls of the romantic comedy genre. KISSING COUSINS delivers an original take on the L.A.-bachelor story and how one male protagonist faces his flaws, and matures.

Amyn Kaderali will be in attendance.

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