Look Both Ways review: Netflix’s multiverse fantasy has a baffling message

New Netflix after all look in both directions give marmot day Formalize a much-needed break. For a while, groundhogTime-looping scenarios like , have been go-to devices for applying a fantastically light feel to stories about choice, destiny, and relationships. Each streaming service seems to have at least one time loop movie. palm spring, A map of small perfect things, boss level, nakedand so on. look in both directions Borrowed from the 1987s instead blind chance, a film by Krzysztof Kieslowski, in which a young man who gets on or misses a train creates parallel timelines with very different lives. (In America he was reimagined as Gwyneth Paltrow’s vehicle in 1998. sliding door.) branch incident look in both directions It is the result of college friends Natalie (Lili Reinhart) and Gabe (Danny Ramirez) meeting during graduation season.

Natalie feels sick on graduation night and takes a pregnancy test. In one timeline, it’s a false alarm and she’s on a “five-year plan” to move to Los Angeles with her best friend Carla (Aisha Dee) to pursue her dream of becoming a professional animator. increase. Another is that Natalie is pregnant and has moved to Texas to live with her parents (Andrea Savage and Luke Wilson), and she’s with nearby (but not romantically involved) Gabe. are committed to co-parenting.

Like other “what if this were different” thought experiment films, look in both directions It’s an opportunity to explore the quirks of life choices, both major and minor. But this movie skims the surface of those choices and philosophizes with all the momentum, vigor, and intelligence of a flavorless rom-com. Or rather, two flavorless rom-coms: one, where Natalie plays a Fun cover with her Gabe, the drummer who looks like her band, and the sincere, unattractive “They’ll either be together or they’ll be together.” Do you want to be Another is drawn to Jake (David Corenswet), a Los Angeles film industry professional.

Director Wanuri Kahiu brings a visual innovation to the film formula where two paths diverge. She quickly brings her two timelines together to speed up the usual alternating segment structure. Occasionally, she superimposes her images to create something like a temporary split screen. Increasing the frequency of jumps between timelines look in both directions Fast pace and a little rhythmic unpredictability. The latter is something sorely lacking in the film’s script.

Both stories are somewhat compelling, like soap operas, but scenes in April Prosser’s script often feel more like reaction than dramatization. Some plot happens, and then the characters talk extensively about how it felt. It’s the story as a particularly shallow therapy session. Hart struggles to sell either side of Natalie. Both the creative go-getter who needs to get over her disappointment and the worried mother who tries to maintain the look of her old self have an overemphasized glossy plastic quality that makes her It lacks even the expressive cartoonishness of . riverdale.

Even more jarring, the filmmakers are grappling with difficult yet relevant issues such as constructing a whimsical five-year plan that seems to exist mostly in movies about people who plan too much. The cuteness of the film is almost insulting every time it fails to make a difficult choice. It’s probably pointless to complain about not giving enough consideration.

But it’s worth pointing out how weak-willed they are. look in both directions Precisely when Natalie explains why she decided to carry her unplanned pregnancy to full term at age 22 and focus on becoming a full-time mother. The film is too creaky to let Natalie articulate her pro-life beliefs or even mention the word “abortion.”say what you want about something like a movie Juno Misunderstood as anti-abortion—at least we have the courage to speak out loud. feels like a completely wrong message at this point.

Photo: Felicia Graham/Netflix

So Natalie can shrug her shoulders at life-changing events and say things like, “This was supposed to happen,” and then do scenes where she talks about fatigue and worries, and lip service to joy. being a parent. And the movie no longer pays attention to that parentage once it really comes into existence: Her child ultimately matters less than if she chose a particular job or a particular roommate. The plot is treated as her device.

That may be the movie’s weird, hollow point in the end. Personal satisfaction in form can be achieved. More downbeat aspects of movies like sliding door Also Melinda and Melinda It’s smoothed out in an attempt to erase the sense of dichotomy between the two roads in front of Natalie. But the resulting message is shallow fluff.

look in both directions It says nothing meaningful about any of the subjects it seems to deal with. Even when the filmmakers get the details right (Natalie’s animated references are spot on and very compelling), the film plays a friend who supports the audience and has the audience’s back. Dabbing and talking about how everything happens for a reason. everything will be great. Then a few minutes later we come back to the important part.

look in both directions Currently streaming on Netflix.