STRANGE BUT UNWATCHABLE
Wonderful cast can’t compensate for random plot twists and tonal dissonance
There are all kinds of twists in the movies, and all kinds of twist-watchers, from the knowit-alls who claim they figured out The Sixth Sense in the opening scene, to those who were gobsmacked partway through Mary Poppins Returns: “Wait. You mean — she comes back?!”
But good luck guessing the revelations in Strange But True, which is decidedly strange and not at all true. Not because the plot perturbations are particularly clever or devious. Rather, they border on the random. The screenplay by Eric Garcia is supposedly based on a novel by John Searles, but feels as though it came together playing Mad Libs. You can even do it yourself: “After (character 1) accidentally (verbs) (character 2), a fortuitous phone call alerts (character 3) to an (adjective) plan, while an (adjective) flashback reveals how someone died, even though we don’t give a rat’s (body part) by this point.” Fill in the blanks and you’ll be just as informed as I was after seeing this messy movie.
The film opens on 20-ish Philip (Nick Robinson) hobbling away from some unspecified danger, injured and in possession of a single crutch. Then it’s the ol’ “two days earlier” subtitle, where we see Philip, much calmer and fully crutched, receiving a visit from his dead brother’s ex-girlfriend.
Melissa (Margaret Qualley) is about eight months pregnant, and calmly informs Philip that the dead brother is the father. But that doesn’t add up, since he died several years ago. Melissa claims she’s never had sex with anyone else and swears by her psychic that she’s been impregnated by a ghost.
There are so many paths for a story like this to take, and Strange But True tries pretty much all of them. Family drama, psychological thriller, murder mystery, teen romance — about the only place it doesn’t go is full-on supernatural horror, and that’s only because, at a trim 96 minutes, it runs out of time.
Philip decides to track down the psychic (Allegra Fulton), while Mom (Amy Ryan) becomes obsessed with the idea that her son had his sperm frozen before or possibly right after he died.
Meanwhile, Melissa seeks solace with a kind couple who aren’t related to her but treat her as a daughter. They’re played by Blythe Danner and Brian Cox. Oh, and Greg Kinnear pops up as Ryan’s ex-husband.
It’s a stellar cast, bursting with Oscar nominees and Golden
Globe winners. The sheer amount of talent on the screen may be the only reason the film is as watchable as it is.
And good luck if you’re the type who likes to figure out the ending before the movie reveals it. You’ll be like a batter at the plate, expecting a curveball, when the pitcher delivers — a cold glass of water. Didn’t see that coming, did you?