Spoilers get lost during the opening title.

I saw this feature a while ago, but left the review for a rainy (snowy) day. This one’s hard to explain, and the fun is in not explaining it. That being said, you’re either this film’s audience or you’re not. If you are entertained by wild and outlandish premises you might get a kick out of this. It’s not that the plot itself is contrived, but the process of discovery will stretch your suspension of disbelief is either be a amusing or tedious. I can see myself being on either side of the fence under different circumstances. Let’s get going.

(Credit: Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Coherence (2013) is directed by James Ward Byrkit who wrote it with Alex Manuagian. A group of close friends are having a small get together. In passing, you hear a comet is supposed to fly by. The friends, Emily (Emily Baldoni), Kevin (Maury Sterling), Mike (Nicholas Brandon), Beth (Elizabeth Gracen), Lee (Lorene Scafaria), Hugh (Hugo Armstrong), Amir (Alex Manugian) and Laurie (Lauren Maher) are settled in for a nice, cozy evening but things are about to take a bizarre turn. As any group of people, they all keep secrets from one another but tonight they’re also going to face their reality becoming twisted.

I won’t go any further except for one thing. There are going to be some obvious and not so obvious moments in which slight incongruences and seemingly incous comments will turn into a evidence of something being off. Not everyone is who they seem, at least not from one scene to another. Now the one thing I will tell you, that probably is a major spoiler here, is that Nicholas Brandon’s identical twin brother Kelly Donovan is part of the cast. Make of that what you will.

Highly recommended for fans of premises that bend time and space with slight reservations. It might be frustrating for casual audiences but I know more than a few people that would eat this stuff up, me included. That being said, you will have to be in the mood for a convoluted execution. Light on special effects but heavy on performances, this one is definitely driven by the acting of the main and only cast. Some of the cast do make a better job than others though, which is my only minor gripe. Worth a watch when you’re in the right frame of mind to have your idea of reality twisted around.

That will do for now.