Uncertainty

Uncertainty(480P)

JGL on the phone to Chinese gangster. 'We're in the bank on the corner of Canal Street.' 2 minutes later Chinese gangster arrives at bank. JGL's girlfriend, Caty, in a panic. 'Oh my God! How'd he find us?' JGL 'I don't know.' That just about sums up the nature of this film. They really didn't think it through very well. Indeed, it leaves you thinking very clearly that they had no script for this. Just 'make it up as you go along guys' seems to be the rule here and, well, it comes across as just made up. JGL is good, as he always is, but the rest of the cast went through the movie in 'actor mode'. There is the ubiquitous scene of families all talking at the same time over dinner; out of focus views of twilight in the Big Apple; and a totally unnecessary sex scene. Sure this was all done on a low budget but so was Napoleon Dynamite. I really cannot think of anything positive to say about this film, even though I would genuinely like to do so. One to be avoided folks.

The course of our lives is determined by the countless decisions - both major and minor - we make on a daily basis. So much so that one simple and seemingly insignificant act of choice can set the course for our entire future, including where we'll go to school, who we'll wind up marrying, whether we'll be killed crossing that street or live another fifty years because we took a different route entirely. That is the theme explored in "Uncertainty," a dual-level drama produced, written and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel. The movie opens with a young couple - played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lynn Collins - standing on the Brooklyn Bridge, obviously on the brink of making some major decision regarding their future. After a coin flip, one heads in one direction (to Manhattan) and one in the other (to Brooklyn), leading the couple to have distinctly different experiences in what might be thought of as parallel universes. In the Manhattan-based scenario, Bobby and Kate, dressed in yellow, are plunged into a bizarre cloak-and-dagger tale set off by the finding of a cell phone in the back of a cab (a bit like "24" if it were made on an indie-film budget); the other direction leads to a more mundane domestic drama wherein the lovers, dressed in green, celebrate the 4th of July with Kate's family, including the overly critical mother who drives the young woman crazy with her negativity and interference. The different-paths-equals-different-outcomes theme has been explored before, most notably in 1998's "Sliding Doors," but here the why and the wherefore of it all seems to have eluded the filmmakers - as it does us. Each storyline is interesting enough in its own right - and the acting and direction are first-rate throughout - but they fail to come together in any kind of a meaningful way. They literally run along parallel tracks, with no point of convergence from which we can deduce a point - unless it's that bright yellow is probably not the best fashion choice when you're trying to outrun a hit man. Moreover, the movie doesn't lay down the ground rules for the scenario in a very coherent or consistent fashion. The synopsis for the film says that the couple uses the coin flip to determine how they're going to spend that holiday weekend. Yet, it's obviously much more complicated than that, for in one version, Kate is pregnant, but in the other she isn't (or, at least, it's never mentioned). In one, she is the star of a Broadway play; in the other, she says she works at a restaurant. And the two couples obviously live in different parts of town. Perhaps, consistency really is the hobgoblin of little minds and we should be looking at the larger picture here, but, all the same, the movie leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions, which may not necessarily be a bad thing, but it can make for a frustrating experience at times. I recommend watching "Uncertainty" for the risks it takes and the mood it sets (Peter Nashel's evocative score is very helpful in that regard) but, when it comes right down to it, the movie seems a commendable but over-elaborate effort at stating the obvious.

This film is about two lost and found stories that lead to vastly different consequences. "Uncertainty" starts off very promising, with two different parallel plots branching off in a refreshing way. These two plots are separated by colour schemes so the stories are easy to follow despite jumping from one story to another. The yellow story is an action thriller. It begins engagingly with a lot of adrenaline pumping. However, the thrill and suspense were not maintained. It is not helped by the boredom of the green story dispersed in between, which destroys the momentum of the yellow story. As the green story never goes anywhere, "Uncertainty" is so much better off if they just concentrated on the yellow story as a action thriller.

It isn't easy to admit that only a movie's charm has won you over, but that seems the case here. I got lost along the way, but derived some much pleasure from the many qualities of this film that I'm certain I'll want to see it again It deserves the attention because perhaps it was my length of tooth (a film devotee for almost eight decades) that got me offtrack. Anyway, the parallel story lines (if that's what they indeed are) threw me a curve-ball. So offtrack did I get that I was adamantly wanting to know why the hell Joseph Gordon-Leavitt and his yellow tee were so inseparable. Suffice it to say that this day in the lives of Gordon-Leavitt and his charismatic and talented girlfriend here, Lynn Collins, is worth spending with them. The simple but interwoven plots have the young and in love couple spending idyllic time with her family for part of the day, and finding more adventure than they bargained for in downtown Manhattan, where our hero finds a cellphone at the scene of a fatal shooting that unwinds before the couple's and our eyes. That they find a stray dog, take it in, and care for it, suggests warmly that we're sharing time with good people. The cellphone, it turns out, belongs to a shady character who will pay a king's ransom to get it back. Therein lies the key to a coin flip on the Brooklyn Bridge. Not one to always need endings ironed out neatly, I was more than satisfied to see these two young, likable people agree to adjust to what lie before them, A hardly minor occurrence, too, on this day, is that she announces her pregnancy. As a couple, this pair is magical. Finding out they ad-libbed dialogue was intriguing here. Unlike others who commented negatively, I thought their input natural and articulate. I'll take the blame for my confusion out of the director's hands. That he merits, for having gotten so much so entertainingly on the mark.

I think this is a good movie, but not a great one. The acting is good. The plots(there were really two distinct ones)were intriguing but incomplete. The whole movie is based on choice made by Bobby and Kate,a young couple. After the choice-whether to spend the 4th of July with the Kate's family or not- is made, the story switches back and forth between the two different scenarios that would have played out based in either choice. The plot gimmick is interesting if not entirely original. As others have mentioned, it is certainly similar to "Run, Lola, Run"(Since I haven't seen that film in awhile, I'm not entirely sure how similar this movie is. I do think that "Lola" was better from what I remember though). Each choice essentially leads to a radically different movie- one domestic drama involving Kate's family and the other was about the couple in the middle of mob war over a lost cell phone( As one reviewer put it, the former plot is probably more interesting to women and the latter to men.) The contrasts and connections between these intertwined stories made for a good movie, but neither plot was fully developed. We learn some information about the character through the two stories, but so much is left unexplained. Who are the mobsters? A possible explanation is offered, but never confirmed. Why don't the main characters eat meat anymore? It apparently has something to do with her mother, but that is never fully explained either. How did her brother die? No further information is offered. What ultimately happens to the stray dog that they pick up in the former scenario? Each story offers yet more choices to for the couple. The main uncertainty in the domestic story is that Kate is pregnant and doesn't know whether to have the baby. The main choice in the other scenario is what to do about the mysterious and evidently valuable cell phone they have acquired. Unfortunately, neither scenario is offered much of a resolution. The pregnancy question is left undecided. the couple finally gets rid of the cell phone in the other scenario, but much is still left unresolved. The mobsters already know who Bobby is and they have tracked him down pretty easily throughout the movie. Won't they just come after him again? Also, the pregnancy is obviously still a reality in that scenario as well. How would such a harrowing experience affect that decision? I'd imagine that they would grow close and the prospective of raising a family together wouldn't be so scary. As a side note, just the fact that a couple in their late 20's/early 30's(it's not clear exactly how old either is supposed to be in the movie) are so indecisive about carrying to term a pregnancy speaks volumes about our culture(and not in a good way). Also, the plot device might have been more interesting if it had evolved around the major choices(what to do with the pregnancy or the cell phone) instead of a minor one. The whole drama about making a choice might have been bigger if the possible choices had bigger apparent consequences then possibly making her mother upset or blowing off their friend's party. The whole mcguffin about finding a lost cell phone and getting involved in a mob war was something that could have just as easily happened in the other scenario. They had no idea that was would happen when they made the choice. What is this move saying? Are we supposed to be afraid or worried about every minor choice and the possible unknown, outlandish consequence that could result from it? For me, this movie was two decent stories that never really coalesced or gave much closure to the viewer. It was good, but it could have been better. Perhaps the makers of this film should dwell on some of their own choices...

I put this film because I got a crush on Lynn Collins and think Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a good budding star. I got my money's worth from their performances, in fact I think Collins is more than just looks, but the plot deflating in the family driven sense and the Manhattan sequence advances the tension which constantly stalls for the family sequence. Confused... yeah I was too. I looked up the film's synopsis and it made more sense. Think of it like this, the 2010 season of Lost. Two story lines inter-cutting based on a slight change in life. I'm not wild about this film, but it deserves attention for the performances from the leads and for being original, which is a rarity nowadays.

When it comes to the crazy side of the coin, one of two things would have solved this young couple's dilemma: #1 Ditch the phone #2 Turn the damn ringer off, put it on vibrate or something. Then, as soon as you confirm that you will more than likely be killed before you'd be able to get any money, DITCH THE PHONE. and then change your blasted yellow outfits. This can be done long before prego GF is forced to run miles up and down stairs and into traffic, almost guaranteeing a miscarriage. Seriously, if you and your prego GF find a cell phone in a cab and foreigners start calling it and talking all kinds of scary mess, chuck that s--- out the window and get on with your life. Also, if you abandon my sound advice and the two of you find yourselves running and hiding from an Asian guy with a gun, tell your prego GF to stop making so many unnecessary piercing vocal noises- because this, along with the bright yellow matching hipster outfits, makes it really hard to hide from a gunman. Potential for a lot of suspense. But I had to constantly and viciously swat away nagging questions about their illogical behavior just to get some slight enjoyment out of this could-be suspenseful drama. And then the movie ends, and we assume they live happily ever after out of wed lock.

This movie had a good plot in the beginning. However, it fell apart after about 20 minutes in and made no sense after that. Their is absolutely no action throughout the movie and the characters lack any depth at all. The movie jumps all over the place and you'll find yourself lost a lot of the time your watching it. The movie was so awful in my mind that I registered with IMDb after years of using the database just to warn how terrible the movie is. Stay away from this film or you will fall asleep after about 35 minutes.

There are some movies you're not supposed to take anything away from besides an experience, a feeling, a rush. The obvious comparison for this film is Run Lola Run, as another reader indicated, but that film had far more cohesion than "Uncertainty." It had potential: running a domestic drama in contrast to a thriller is an interesting concept. After all, bringing your boyfriend to meet the family when you're secretly pregnant and unmarried is as ripe for tension as being chased by gunmen through the streets of New York. If you had to choose one, which would you pick? I thought to myself at times that I was watching the male and female versions of what we look for in suspense, the domestic manners drama and the gangster thriller. The parallel narratives work for a little while, but then strangely, the tension completely deflates in Brooklyn, while it continues to build in Manhattan. If the dramas had both advanced and each situation gotten tenser, with the mother finding about the pregnancy and getting involved, just as the gunman found them in Chinatown, that would have made for interesting parallels. As it was, you're left with a very unclear ending and a sense of pointlessness to the whole enterprise. While I'm slightly curious as to what the writers were trying to do, whatever it was, it didn't really work. So my curiosity is somewhat sated. Try "The Hurt Locker" for an excellent indie film out there right now, or for JGL fans, "500 Days of Summer" is just fine.