Coherence
Debuting in September 2013 and directed by newcomer James Ward Byrkit (who I had heard of as the writer of one of my favourite animated movies of recent years - 2011s "Rango" - but he was also the storyboard artist on the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series), it stars an ensemble cast of eight actors, none of whom are big names. The most familiar to SF genre fans would be Nicholas Brendon, famous for playing Xander in "Buffy The Vampire Slayer".
The film has a very Twilight Zone feel - the kind of fractured reality that you see just out of the corner of your eye where an unnatural event intrudes on the ordinary world. In this case, eight friends gather for a dinner party. As they eat by candlelight and chat about their mundane existences it is revealed that several of the characters have complex interpersonal relationships or concerns, regrets or petty hang-ups. For example Em is worried about the presence of her boyfriends ex, Beth is obsessed with feng shui and Mike (Nicholas Brendon) is unhappy that despite being a fan of the TV show he starred in, another guest fails to recognize him (all very meta there). Conversation also turns to the fact that a irregular comet is about to pass over the Earth, but spooky tales about previous comets, shattered phone screens and the Tunguska Event are all laughed off. So far, so normal.
Suddenly all the power goes out - apart from one light about two blocks away. With all their phones now not working, two of the friends, Hugo and Amir, venture out into the dark to this neighbour that still seems to have electricity, but they come back very spooked - they have found that the other house looks exactly like the one they just left. The group are convinced that the duo somehow just accidentally walked in a circle, until Mike opens a small metal box Amir took from the other house. Inside they find a Table Tennis (Ping-Pong) bat and an envelope which contains photos of all of them, each with a number written on the back in what seems to be Em’s handwriting - and the one of Amir shows him wearing a jumper he’d just bought that day, even though no photograph has been taken...
I won't say too much more for fear of spoiling the plot, but what follows is a brain-teasing, mind-bending, nerve twisting puzzle where a group of people become confused and fearful as they struggle to make sense of what seems like a set of impossible situations. The film is shot in a handheld style and much of the dialogue improvised to add a layer of realism (the cast were only given limited information in advance). People talk over and interrupt each other and it's all a bit like a fly-on-the-wall documentary or even a stage play. The nature of the story also means that the action is confined mostly to the one set, highlighting the theatrical aspect and creating a claustrophobic atmosphere full of tension as the friends become increasingly unsettled and start to turn on each other. Taking in quantum physics concepts postulated by Stephen Hawking and others it requires patience and concentration - the viewer has to pay close attention to the dialogue or to briefly glimpsed objects to piece together what is really happening and to whom. What is the significance of a box of different coloured glowsticks and who exactly did smash the windscreen of the car outside? Who is out there, who can you trust and how far would you go to change the mistakes of the past?
Coherence is not for everybody. It's very talky, occasionally clunky with it's exposition and contrivances and if you have any knowledge of SF you will probably figure out what is going on quite quickly (and if not the film does explain it clearly). But it's the way the story unfolds and how the characters each interact and react differently to the crisis that grabbed me. You don't need flashy visual pyrotechnics to tell an intelligent and refreshing SF tale and I thoroughly enjoyed this one from start to finish. Rod Serling would have been very happy.
Next up - a film about luck, love, a lack of feelings and The Manual...
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