This strange thriller presents a world that seems real at first, but becomes more and more unreal as time goes on.
Sam Foster (Ewan McGregor, MOULIN ROUGE!) is a psychologist who is filling in for his sick friend Beth Levy (Janeane Garofalo, THE TRUTH ABOUT CATS & DOGS). Beth’s patient Henry Letham (Ryan Gosling, THE NOTEBOOK) has set his car on fire on the freeway and tells Sam that he intends to kill himself on Saturday. Sam is conflicted on what to do, but he knows he has to try and stop Sam from hurting himself.
He feels reluctant to talk to his girlfriend Lila (Naomi Watts, KING KONG), because she once tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists in the bathtub. Things start to get weird when Henry claims Sam’s blind confidant, Dr. Leon Patterson (Bob Hoskins, MERMAIDS), is really his dead father. Sam wants to learn more about Henry so he seeks out the young man’s supposedly dead mother (Kate Burton, EMPIRE FALLS), who lives in an empty house with a vicious dog.
By now we know that things are not as they seem. Periodically we get hints and flashes that time is being twisted and that some people may not be real and others may be the same person as someone else. As the plot thickens, the answers become foggier until we reach a conclusion that explains everything clearly.
The strange tale is fascinating as we try to unravel the meaning, but it is kind of fruitless to try. Director Marc Forster (FINDING NEVERLAND) and writer David Benioff (25TH HOUR) craft an original sci-fi tale that hints at many conventions, but ends up being something we do not expect. However, I get a sneaky suspicion that moments that seem to hold more weight upon first viewing will seem less so once you know the whole story.
The cast is filled with believable performances. Standing out however is the brief appearances of Hoskins as the blind psychologist. Despite the fact that the ending may take away from future viewings rather than add to it, the style and compelling confusion of the narrative, along with the good performances, provides a wonderful entertainment. Even with some its weakness, the ending presents an interesting twist on the standard conventions of certain life and death situations.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
