Coherence (2013)
A twisty, semi-sci-fi improbable movie with enough fun antics and mind bending ideas to make it work. The basic idea has been visited often lately—there are more than one of us out there. The closest parallel is "The One I Love" which has the different versions of people encounter each other in oblique ways, but it occurs differently in "Sliding Doors" which is even mentioned in this film.
Which is to say: not quite original.
But the ensemble acting is so solid and natural all along, it makes the improbable slightly believable. If you don't buy the wobbly science (they confuse a comet with a meteor, it seems, when talking about Finland, and the whole coherence idea which is apparently only true for subatomic physics) you can at least see yourself in these rather ordinary people. Well, upper middle class educated people.
Eight of them have gathered in a suburban house for dinner. A phone screen cracks mysteriously. The comet is mentioned. And then the lights go out. Fine so far, armed with candles and glow sticks. Then one guy sees a house two blocks away that has its lights one.
And the credibility is strained even on non-cosmic aspects. Because, for example, this lighted up house scares them, even after they realize it might have a generator (and even after their own generator turns on). And then they are scared to walk outside and ask the house to use their phone—in the sweet warm suburbs? Hmph.
These little things matter—like hinting at dangers that we don't really feel are dangers, but now that they are hints we come to suspect some foul play or weird effects ahead.
Still, there is the creepy sensation of sensing you might have a second—or third— version out there. And that you might meet, and then? Exactly—then what? It gets startling and spooky and fun. It resolves slightly by the end, with a final cliffhanging phone call.
Nothing brilliant here despite the underlying strains of intellectualism. But it's natural and a good lightweight game.
A twisty, semi-sci-fi improbable movie with enough fun antics and mind bending ideas to make it work. The basic idea has been visited often lately—there are more than one of us out there. The closest parallel is "The One I Love" which has the different versions of people encounter each other in oblique ways, but it occurs differently in "Sliding Doors" which is even mentioned in this film.
Which is to say: not quite original.
But the ensemble acting is so solid and natural all along, it makes the improbable slightly believable. If you don't buy the wobbly science (they confuse a comet with a meteor, it seems, when talking about Finland, and the whole coherence idea which is apparently only true for subatomic physics) you can at least see yourself in these rather ordinary people. Well, upper middle class educated people.
Eight of them have gathered in a suburban house for dinner. A phone screen cracks mysteriously. The comet is mentioned. And then the lights go out. Fine so far, armed with candles and glow sticks. Then one guy sees a house two blocks away that has its lights one.
And the credibility is strained even on non-cosmic aspects. Because, for example, this lighted up house scares them, even after they realize it might have a generator (and even after their own generator turns on). And then they are scared to walk outside and ask the house to use their phone—in the sweet warm suburbs? Hmph.
These little things matter—like hinting at dangers that we don't really feel are dangers, but now that they are hints we come to suspect some foul play or weird effects ahead.
Still, there is the creepy sensation of sensing you might have a second—or third— version out there. And that you might meet, and then? Exactly—then what? It gets startling and spooky and fun. It resolves slightly by the end, with a final cliffhanging phone call.
Nothing brilliant here despite the underlying strains of intellectualism. But it's natural and a good lightweight game.