Writer: Sam Esmail
Cast: Justin Long, Emmy Rossum
Set in a parallel universe, Comet bounces back and forth over the course of an unlikely but perfectly paired couple's six-year relationship.
The parallel universe part doesn't really have a bearing on the story and this is something that has been done in a not so different fashion prior to it in '500 Days of Summer'. I saw it after being impressed by Sam Esmail's TV series Mr. Robot. Like that one, Comet also wears its references on its sleeves but it does so as a ruse to give some sophistication to the film when in fact it is a very simple story told in a non-linear fashion. You get the typical Lynchian concept he used in his LA/Dream trilogy, which is the story happening inside the head of someone just before their death. In Comet, Esmail plugs this through the Sixth Sense reference. During one of their conversations, the girl exasperates about time based art like films, theater, concerts etc stating that it requires viewer to watch it through beginning, middle and to end whereas art-forms like Painting doesn't require you to do so. That is said during a point in the film where up till then, segments were very short and you think that is what he trying to do by being all over the place in terms of chronology so that you can watch the film from any point of it. But, later on, the segments become quite long and sort of traditional. So it basically ends up as a very talky minimalist version of 500 Days of Summer.
Overall, it is a good watch with clever enough conversations but is the kind that you will forget about in no time. I am not saying that as a negative thing but that is how these kind of films always end up as. That is unless, I missed some of its cleverness if he actually did put some conversations across different timeline segments instead of containing each of them in a particular segment. Chemistry is good between the lead actors and performances engaging. Justin Long looks like Tony Leung in extreme close-ups. It had a very limited theatrical release and went for VoD.
Rating: 3/5
No comments:
Post a Comment