Z/Web

This is a severely flawed movie but it almost succeeds. It’s a neat concept, playing around with identity and heartbreak. Basically, our hero was in love but his girl took off for Europe without an explanation. He was heartbroken, but it’s two years later and he’s about to marry his boss’ sister. Then he thinks he sees his old girlfriend. She’s gone before he can catch her, so he plays detective and tracks her down. When he finds her, he’s disappointed to discover it’s not her, but a completely different girl with the same name, same perfume, same clothing, etc. Without spoiling the twist ending, let’s just say that explanations are forthcoming and make sense. Unfortunately, it’s both the complexity and method of revealing those explanations that make the film bewildering, uncomfortable, and much too long. The film, essentially, is all flashbacks and dreams. It’s often unclear if the scene was present day, two years ago, or a dream. Worse, the main character isn’t the only one flashing back: several other characters do so as well. While that gives us looks at familiar scenes from different perspectives, it adds to the confusion. For the first hour the film is just bewildering and makes little sense. Eventually it does, but by that time you don’t really care too much. The twisted plot is way too twisted, overdone, and full of itself; the movie goes on and on forever (it should have been 90 minutes max); and there are several sideplots and red herrings that should have been eliminated. That said, the film does have a number of positives. The twist in the plot is interesting. I liked it. (It just takes too long to get there.) The performances are also excellent, especially Rose Byrne, who is amazing: how she can alternatively be so plain and so striking I can’t fathom. She’s what makes the movie succeed for me. The others are decent, though mostly soulless. This is a strange film in that I didn’t like it at all for the first hour, but liked the second hour and liked it after it was done. That leaves it with a bitter taste, only awkwardly successful. It really needed better direction and/or a new script not so dependent on flashbacks (ugh).