SCI-FI; 1hr 30min
STARRING: Jacqueline McKenzie, Myles Pollard, Ben Mortley
World's Apart: McKenzie and Pollard
Parallel worlds are out there in a hypothetical pluckily anchored by the hard-working McKenzie as a particle physicist who defies dimensions. Jane Chandler has an on-track life as a happily married mother-of-two until the road-accident death her husband, Matt (Pollard), leaves her reeling. Australian director and co-writer John V. Soto (The Reckoning) isn’t overly concerned with histrionics, though, nipping through Jane’s initial helplessness to the crux of the offbeat set-up: after she and her trusty research assistant (Mortley) discover a coexisting reality in which another Jane is involved in the same research, the pull of temptation proves too strong.
With the barest of reservations, Jane teleports herself inside what looks like a giant microwave oven to the other end of the line where, hallelujah, Matt is alive and well. Her man comes back! Just like that! But you don’t need be a Bachelor of Engineering Science to smell a toxic rat. From day one, the new, spatially reconfigured Matt is noticeably off, and judging by the sinisterly thrumming score, his mood isn’t likely to improve.
Pollard’s stone-bot villain is a kick, intuitive trouper McKenzie is eminently relatable and Soto’s monkeying with the unknown makes for one loopy trip. It seems mean-spirited to play the logic card with such nitpicky questions as how the hell Jane can sneak a dead man into her life without him being noticed. (She can’t. Duh.) So chalk this puppy up as a flat-chat guilty pleasure and go with its batty flow instead. Its leading lady’s dedication deserves nothing less.
