CoherenceHave you ever found yourself at a party with friends, and you said something you wish you hadn't. Maybe some other version of yourself would have done things differently, and in some other reality, you could take back that decision. And what if that reality is out there, it's real, and you can touch it? All those other variances in your life, those choices, accounted for and reflected in a manifest form? That's the premise for Coherence, deriving its science fiction elements from what is referred to as "quantum superposition", popularized in the analogy of "Schrödinger's cat".
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Coherence presents a story of a dinner party between four couples on the night when a comet--Miller's Comet--is passing close to the Earth, so close that as the party goers stare up into the night sky, they can see its vibrant illumination. But from the start, as Emily (Emily Baldoni) is chatting with her boyfriend, Kevin (Maury Sterling) over her cell phone, it unexpectedly cracks. This phenomenon is later repeated with another friend, Hugh (Hugo Armstrong) over dinner. Strange occurrences develop, giving the gathering an eerie tone, like the setup for a good, chilling scary story, which would make for good entertainment among friends. The style of the film is presented in a documentary-like, cinéma vérité style, which is important as our own witness to the strange events at the house are our only genuine sense of any rational objectivity. Small touches establish the characters as highly authentic; these are the kind of people you would expect to have a dinner party with. Beth (Elizabeth Gracen) is a new-age type, who doesn't object to introducing some tranquilizers to "take the edge off" those who get a little stressed out. Lee (Lorene Scafaria) is an amiable hostess, whose husband, Mike (Nicholas Brendon)--his claim to fame having a reoccuring role on "Roswell"--sometimes says what he thinks when it should be the other way around. And Amir (Alex Manugian) is a nice guy, but lacks the tact to avoid bringing his sultry girlfriend Laurie (Lauren Maher) to the party, knowing that she and Kevin have a past. Still, we all have friends like these--and what's that saying about "friends like these"? The comet--and the ensuing blackout that follows--is the real mood killer of the party, something which the guests uneasily chuckle about at first, then their inquisitive side propels them to investigate the only house on the street which also seems to have power, their most identifiable means of illumination a batch of blue glowsticks--from several other colors--as a part of Mike and Lee's emergency supplies.
Coherence plays upon some of the most primal of fears in people, and also the most existential ones. When the lights go out, when Hugh can't make a call to his brother--a theoretical physicist who asks him to contact him if anything "weird" happens--the tensions escalate among the characters. It starts subtle, but it ratchets up, revealing characteristics about these people we only know superficially at first. Key personal information becomes the means by which to understand one person from the next; subtle clues tell us more about what is really transpiring as the people--who occasionally go out into that inky blackness of night to seek answers--return, and our suspicions about whether it is some type of altered state of reality, or just paranoia, are unclear. Beth--who is into astrology--might find some significance in the drastic change in reality which they experience as a result of the presence of a celestial body; is the comet a catalyst for this event? It only makes sense to think so, considering the circumstances surrounding its appearance fundamentally alter the way these eight people will interact with each other. Like many dinner parties, the conversations go from small talk--lubricated with some alcohol--into deeper thought. In this case, it becomes theoretical physics and quantum probability. A book left in Hugh's car--meant for his brother--clues them into this subject, their only real way of trying to understand what is happening to them; that, and a mysterious box with pictures inside. But even these kinds of discussions are not pursued in depth at most parties; it is the necessity of our characters' fear which motivates them to try to understand and seek a solution. A good deal of Coherence reminds me of an episode of The Twilight Zone, called "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", where a power outage leaves a group of people presuming the worst, their inner fear fueled by the absence of the technologies they have taken for granted, as well as a radical shift in perception which externalizes their concealed instincts and "true selves". There are people who are close to us--even people we love --but who can say that we really know them all that well? Suppose there is another side to someone, or another part of their personality that for some reason or another, they simply haven't exposed to you. How would you react if that side were to emerge? Would you think that they were in fact the same person you know, or some kind of doppelgänger, someone effectively wearing the skin of your friend? Or if they felt the same of you? One of the most essential of emotional bases for stability is a sense of identity, and familiarity for others with whom you share a bond. Coherence plays with our sense of control over what we perceive with cinematic flourishes--cuts to black and periodic moments where characters move in and out of focus. Coherence asks the question we always ask ourselves "what if?", and answers with a fractal manifestation, a kind of "magic" which implies that our universe may not be as free from glitches as we would like to think.
Recommended for: Fans of a thought-provoking science fiction story, where identifiable characters find themselves confronted with higher-level scientific and philosophical theory, and the fear that comes with the unknown--about their predicament and themselves.
Coherence plays upon some of the most primal of fears in people, and also the most existential ones. When the lights go out, when Hugh can't make a call to his brother--a theoretical physicist who asks him to contact him if anything "weird" happens--the tensions escalate among the characters. It starts subtle, but it ratchets up, revealing characteristics about these people we only know superficially at first. Key personal information becomes the means by which to understand one person from the next; subtle clues tell us more about what is really transpiring as the people--who occasionally go out into that inky blackness of night to seek answers--return, and our suspicions about whether it is some type of altered state of reality, or just paranoia, are unclear. Beth--who is into astrology--might find some significance in the drastic change in reality which they experience as a result of the presence of a celestial body; is the comet a catalyst for this event? It only makes sense to think so, considering the circumstances surrounding its appearance fundamentally alter the way these eight people will interact with each other. Like many dinner parties, the conversations go from small talk--lubricated with some alcohol--into deeper thought. In this case, it becomes theoretical physics and quantum probability. A book left in Hugh's car--meant for his brother--clues them into this subject, their only real way of trying to understand what is happening to them; that, and a mysterious box with pictures inside. But even these kinds of discussions are not pursued in depth at most parties; it is the necessity of our characters' fear which motivates them to try to understand and seek a solution. A good deal of Coherence reminds me of an episode of The Twilight Zone, called "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", where a power outage leaves a group of people presuming the worst, their inner fear fueled by the absence of the technologies they have taken for granted, as well as a radical shift in perception which externalizes their concealed instincts and "true selves". There are people who are close to us--even people we love --but who can say that we really know them all that well? Suppose there is another side to someone, or another part of their personality that for some reason or another, they simply haven't exposed to you. How would you react if that side were to emerge? Would you think that they were in fact the same person you know, or some kind of doppelgänger, someone effectively wearing the skin of your friend? Or if they felt the same of you? One of the most essential of emotional bases for stability is a sense of identity, and familiarity for others with whom you share a bond. Coherence plays with our sense of control over what we perceive with cinematic flourishes--cuts to black and periodic moments where characters move in and out of focus. Coherence asks the question we always ask ourselves "what if?", and answers with a fractal manifestation, a kind of "magic" which implies that our universe may not be as free from glitches as we would like to think.
Recommended for: Fans of a thought-provoking science fiction story, where identifiable characters find themselves confronted with higher-level scientific and philosophical theory, and the fear that comes with the unknown--about their predicament and themselves.