Schrodinger’s cat, dinner party antics, and experimental filmmaking collide in James Ward Byrkit’s directorial feature-length debut, Coherence. This is one head trip of a movie that begins slowly as a dull and pointless visitation to one of the most tiresome branches of indie filmmaking, mumblecore, but gains momentum as it begins to fully explore its trippy sci-fi story. Eventually it goes into territory you don’t see coming and ends with a cliffhanger even Hitchcock would have been proud of. The less you know the better.
Byrkit made this film with no budget, no crew and no script. His actors were as clueless as the audience; the actors tried to piece together the mystery of how so many weird events could be taking place at once.
A comet is passing close to earth which is apparently interfering with cell phone reception and causing power outages. The guests of the party drink, take drugs, and discuss their mundane lives. None of it is particularly interesting until things go bonkers.
The director sacrifices technical polish in order to utilize his methodology. The visuals are often weak and not pleasing to the eye as their improvised nature becomes apparent through the editing, which cuts between characters without establishing the surrounding setting. We almost never get a wide shot to show where everyone is sitting at the table so that we can mentally place everyone in the space within the frame.
The director filmed improvised material not knowing where his actors would move or what exactly they would say. Perhaps there was no time for perfection. Unfortunately, the same can be said for some of the audio. Sometimes when multiple characters are bantering at once some of the sound descends into incomprehensible sludge.
However, I suppose this is the sacrifice he is willing to make in order to get naturalistic performances out of his actors, who all do remarkable work. Their dialogue is authentic and does not seem rushed like most films that sacrifice realism for efficiency.
James Ward Byrkit lets his actors talk and talk and talk. At times this is a commendable aspect of the film and at other times it is one of the most boring; it all depends on what the characters are chatting about. If it’s themselves it is probably the latter aspect but if it’s the mystery, it’s the former.
Don’t be confused by the quantum theory and that stupid cat; this is pure genre fare, not profound cinema. Any attempt to make a statement about the characters or explore any significant themes is neglected in favour of figuring out the mystery. It’s in these scenes that the naturalistic performances from the actors pay their dividends. The screams are real screams; the inquisitive stares are real confusion. James Ward Byrkit’s talent is the real deal.
In theory, anyone could have made Coherence, but in practice it takes someone creative and inventive. In practice this is an amateurish effort, but in theory its story is too different and far out to ignore. Coherence is a film all about theory.
