COHERENCE

US, 2013, 89 minutes, Colour.

Emily Baldoni, Maury Sterling, Nicholas Brandon, Lorena Scafaria, Elizabeth Graycen, Hugo Armstrong, Alex Manugian, Lauren Maher.

Directed by James Ward Byrkitt.

A film for more specialist audience. It is small budget, was filmed over five nights, is largely improvised, each of the members of the cast being given some background to the character, not knowing details of the other characters.

The situation is an evening, a gathering of eight, the audience having to work hard initially to identify each of the characters, their relationship to each other, present relationships, past relationships, as well as professions. The occasion is Miller’s Comet passing through the skies.

For audiences who enjoyed improvisation, for performers who are skilled in creating dialogue and situations, responding, interactions, there is much of interest.

And there are complications with the evening, especially the power going out. And, some of the group going outside to see what was happening. There are some scenes outside, especially concerning a car outside the building towards the end of the film.

The screenplay then turns surreal, the suggestion of alternate universe, alternate personifications of each character. They puzzle, they discuss, one sleeps, ping-pong equipment is brought back into the house, different numbers on the back of the boxes, the puzzle of identifying which blocks box belong to which character.

And, there are problems with identification, a brother of one of the characters, and the interactions between the two universes. This involves going outside, the characters who go outside, what they discover, a parallel dining set up, the car, sleeping in the car, who wakes up…

In the morning, everything seems normal – but, the audience is left with a character discovering the alternate version of herself.

And, the title, enigmatically, is Coherence.