I've said I tend to watch movies while I multitask, right? Because this one lost me. I guess it's kind of an indy drama/thriller...sort of? Anyway...
The story: a young couple, Bobby and Kate (played by Joseph Gordan-Levitt and Lynn Collins) stand on a bridge talking about making a decision. Bobby suggests they flip a coin. Why not? He does and the two people run off in opposite directions, splitting the movie in two. In one (GREEN) Bobby gets into a car driven by Kate and they see a dog in the middle of the road and this story is about them trying to find the dog's owner while also visiting with Kate's parents where Kate will try to hide the fact that she is pregnant. In the other story (YELLOW) Kate gets into a cab with Bobby and they find a phone which they decide to try to give back to the owner, except someone else wants the phone and is willing to kill for it and now the young couple are thrust into a thriller as they try to elude the killers.
Um...it's hard for me to say much about the movie. The thriller story, for the most part, I thought was pretty cool. They take something ordinary (finding a phone) and thrust the couple into a cool little situation which quickly escalates into murder and the young couple on the run. It takes a nice turn when they decide to try to sell the phone instead of going to the police which keeps everything going. But the other story...putting up posters for a dog? Hanging out with the family? Um...why? I totally didn't get it. In the end of both stories, the couple ends up in the same place at essentially the same situation, so I guess nothing meant anything? Or our decisions go to the same place? Or... I don't know.
Now there was a better movie called SLIDING DOORS a few years ago where the story splits when Gwenyth Paltrow gets on a subway car or just misses the car. In one she finds out her boyfriend has been cheating on her. In the other...I don't remember. It's been a while and it's a Paltrow movie, so it's not like I was playing that much attention the first time. But I rememebr that in one she ditech the boyfriend and gets a new happy relationship and in the other she doesn't and becomes more and more miserable. So there was a point in showing these two different stories happening to the same person. In UNCERTAINY I am uncertain (ha! get it...I used the title in a sentence where I was talking about the movie! Isn't that soooo clever!) what they were getting at. Now even then I might have forgiven the giant waste of time that the whole dog storyline was if the thriller storyline had a stronger, more intense ending, but no. It has a lame art-house ending too. Totally unsatisfying.
So how do I rate it? Most of the thriller was a strong recommendation. But the ending was lame and the rest of it felt worthless. If I understood why they split or what they were trying to say maybe I could recommend it, but as it is I think I'd have to say pass.
*** SLIGHT PASS ** (although part of the movie is pretty cool; I could only recommend if you want a thriller with a very art house ending and don't mind half the time spend on a totally lame other storyline)
Reommend instead: here are a few good thrillers -- The Bank Job, Ronin (with DeNiro), The Net (with Sandra Bullock), El Mariachi, Red Eye.
Here's the trailer for the movie:
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