About: Under the wisteria trees, Alana and Jack are two lovers vowed to love each other eternally, not only in this lifetime but the next. However, their world shatters when a tragic accident takes Jack’s life, leaving Alana alone and broken. Ten years after Jack’s death, Alana sees a 10 year old boy, Gustav Karoff a musical protégé, on the news. The boy bears an uncanny resemblance to Jack as a child. Consumed by a feeling she cannot explain, Alana travels to Vienna to meet the boy, navigating suspicion, skepticism and her own sanity. What follows is the story of faith in the impossible and an unrelenting pursuit to uncover the truth about the boundaries of life, death and eternal love.
Reaction: Woefully inept attempt to create a florid love story that transcends time, this film was clearly inspired by Jean-Marc Vallee’s Cafe de Flore. A pregnant female writer loses her husband in a tragic car accident. After ten years of grieving, she is compelled to travel to Austria to witness a ten year old violin virtuoso, who may be her late hubby’s reincarnation (or something). Years later, the violin prodigy himself is attracted to a French opera singer who looks suspiciously like the original novelist. Shot on little budget over the course of four weeks, the film simply does not have the resources necessary to effectively tell its story: the European accents are wobbly, the violin mastery is mostly hinted at offscreen, as the quick editing can’t conceal Joseph Marrese’s lack of convincing musicianship. And Caitlin McNerney is far more convincing as a suicidal novelist than as a European opera diva (where she gives off a distinct Ariane Grande vibe). Worse, the key concert scenes set in Austria land with a thud, as the production couldn’t even afford an audience. No shots of the auditorium at all. Just swirling closeups of some less than convincing lip-synching during major concert scenes. If we are going to encourage more female directors to tell their stories, then we are going to have to find a way to provide them with the resources necessary to provide production standards minimally required by today’s audiences. Otherwise, we will end up with films like this, that feel totally inauthentic due to story-telling ambition that far outstrips any visible available budget.
Rating: 2 out of 10
