cassandra eastcott-layton

I really wanted to enjoy this film but it took an effort over 3 days to finish it. I’m partial to the alternate reality trope so it should’ve been an easy sell. But as hard as I tried I just didn’t care about any of the characters or enjoy anything they did. Reinhardt is an adorable actress and I expected a bit more individuality or quirkiness to her character, especially given she is an artist. But the character she portrays is quite bland. The love interests were one dimensional caricatures of the sweet and quiet home town buddy, and the ambitious and confident big-city guy. Aisha Dee was the standout performance, portraying the fun, smart, fashionable bestie. When she laughed or cried, I could kinda believe it. When every other characters showed emotions, it seemed so insincere that it took me out of the narrative and made me wonder about the writing, directing, wardrobe, lighting, anything that might explain why they were so unengaging. The mother-child relationship was so unbelievable that the child could have been a plant or a pet fish or a special ice cream cake. The success that the main character seeks or finds with her art is not well explored, and I think there could’ve been more shown about the evolution of her work. All I really got from it is that her art imitates her life, but very little about the substance of the art. The use of the graphics in the film and her being an artist seemed tokenistic- for all the insight we got to that aspect it could’ve been substituted for any career pursuit. I didn’t care about what happened to the characters. I didn’t have a preferred ‘reality’ that I was secretly rooting for. Many scenes I wanted to skip forward because they were so predictable. Writing this review was more enjoyable than this movie, unfortunately. It’s not offensively bad, but so bland as to be disappointing.