DVD Release
Try as I might, I have been unable to decide upon a star-rating for this film. Instead, I shall try and order my thoughts in this review, but I imagine I will still be largely undecided upon how I feel come the end.
Following the discovery of a mysterious advertisement in a newspaper, three journalists set out to a remote seaside town to track down the author. Whilst there, they come across Kenneth, a strange, reclusive individual, who posted the advert in the hope of finding a suitable companion to travel back in time with him.
Well, where to begin? We shall start with the two central characters, Kenneth (Mark Duplass) and Darius (Aubrey Plaza), an intern at the newspaper. Darius is the character who comes to spend the most time with Kenneth and, predictably, her relationship with this strange and eccentric man becomes something more than purely investigatory. It isn't, however, a burden upon the film that it sinks into this romantic trope as we want both characters to find someone who relieves them of their loneliness. There are some endearing montages wherein we see the two undertake the 'training' process, but speech between the two is lacking, with the director choosing to show their blooming friendship with a variety of background songs and quickly exchanged glances. Their pairing is offset against Jeff's (the rather excellent Jake Johnson) quest to revive the spark with his high school sweetheart. This contrast between the different lovers seems pointless - I just wanted to know more about what was happening between Kenneth and Darius... but then maybe the time spent focusing on Jeff helped to instil in the viewer the human desire to relive moments from our past? I just don't know! As for Arnau (Karan Soni), the poor man is merely an awkward third wheel in the group of journalists, and Jeff's desire to 'get him laid' borders on creepy.
The whole film is tinged with sadness and melancholia. All the characters are apparently 'lost souls', but are dealing with their sadness in different ways: Jeff sleeps with everything that has a pulse; Darius is willing to put herself into risky situations, almost like an adrenaline junky; Arnau keeps himself to himself; and Kenneth has immersed himself in a quest to travel back in time. Kenneth and Jeff appear to be different sides of the same coin - both long for a relationship that they had in the past, in their 'glory days' as it were, and neither seem capable of moving on. Both are very interesting characters, and it is frustrating that we only get to know about them in the 'here and now' - there are no flashbacks and little exposition to fill in the blanks of their past lives. Kenneth's character development, or lack of it, is the most frustrating aspect of the film - why does he remember what happened with regards to his break up with his past girlfriend differently? Or is he telling the truth and is the ex-girlfriend lying? Or is he suffering from some kind of traumatic amnesia from the 'accident'? All these questions are left unanswered, leaving the end very ambiguous. For me, this part of the film is incredibly frustrating.
It is harder than I imagined to articulate exactly how conflicted I am about this film on paper. In some instances, I was moved and charmed, whilst at other points I was annoyed. I cannot decide if this frustration is what the filmmakers wanted me to feel? Will someone please tell me and release me from this anguish! I feel that I will have to return to this film at a later date in an attempt to uncover something I may have previously missed, but for now I remain confused and almost troubled at my indecision.
P.S. It is not lost on me that the 'poster image' I have chosen is filled with four- and five-star reviews for this film...
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