"I guess I thought it was, like, whimsical," offers Thomas Middleditch's character in Entanglement as a defense at one point. Director Jason James and screenwriter Jason Filiatrault apparently share that assumption; the film opens with a sequence that aims to make a suicide attempter laugh peacefully. From there, the narrative runs down the twin tracks of shock and humor, with a quantum physics detour, towards diminishing returns. Sure timing and James' visual skill almost mask how tense and half-baked the story is.
But the director gets sharp and engaging performances from the cast from him. Silicon Valley's Middleditch wisely plays down the role of sad sack and would-be suicide Ben Layten, who has been despondent ever since his wife left him. When you take the charm off the actor, Ben is an insufferable boy-man. For one thing, he still sees his child psychologist (Johannah Newmarch). The film provides not the slightest hint of his professional interests or general purpose in life. His possession of carefully selected vinyl albums, an unconvincing nod to soulful hipsterism, should be enough.
Directors: Lliane Clarke, Kaye Tuckerman, Otgadahe Whitman-Fox
Writers: Jeannine Acantilado, Cynthia Arsenault, Di Bird
Stars: Pooya Mohseni, Melanie Nicholls-King, Kaye Tuckerman
Somehow, all the blanks in Ben's personality make him the romantic ideal for a pair of intelligent women who cross his path. His neighbor Tabby (Diana Bang) may own an art boutique, but she finds time to motherly tidy up Ben's apartment, breaking in without her permission or knowledge. To Tabby's dismay, a mysterious woman enters Ben's life and takes center stage, instructing him in more daring forms of home invasion.
Their paths cross as Ben finds a new focus for his Rx-hushed days, after his hospitalized father (Eric Keenleyside) delivers an absurd stab at a deathbed confession: he reveals that decades earlier, a girl almost became Ben's adoptive sister. Convinced that the ghost brother is the key to haunting "could-should" questions, Ben sets out to find her.
The person he meets is Hanna, a free-spirited thief played by Jess Weixler. Call her a manic pixie dream girl or just a male fantasy, she's that and a little more: funny, defiant, and the perfect rule-breaking antidote to Ben's nervous wariness. That she pursues him so intensely is at least as unbelievable as Tabby's unrequited attraction. But in this story of an emotionally underdeveloped man, Ben's gruff mother turns out to be the only woman who doesn't meet his needs.
Filiatrault's script weaves the idea of quantum entanglement into Ben's story, with Hanna insisting that they're not just long-lost foster siblings, but bonded particles, forever connected. It's an intriguing premise, but one that is explored in only the most superficial of ways. The plot mechanics ultimately undo any possibility of a larger meaning, and the story devolves into plain, unsatisfying notions about mental illness and romantic love.
Director James, however, embellishes the soft fantasy with charmingly surreal touches, from cartoon forest creatures to images of cosmic orbits, that convey the precariousness of Ben's mental state as well as the inspiration he feels when he's around her. Hanna. Even the everyday elements of suburban locations (shot in British Columbia) have fluidity and brilliance thanks to the excellent work of cinematographer James Liston.
But despite the fluidity of the visuals, and despite Middleditch's understated sympathy, there's no escaping the preciousness the film places on Ben's immaturity and self-absorption. The big twist in the story comes long before the anticipated surprise. In that moment, the strands of this rom-com alternate reality have come undone. What remains is as empty as it is tidy, certainly good news for Bang's character, who likes things neat and clean.
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