High concept but low connection

More a film to be admired than embraced, Bill Oliver’s first feature is a curious, scifi-tinged drama about a solitary young New Yorker (Ansel Elgort) struggling to make a connection with another human being.

Although that big city pursuit would pose a challenge for anybody, the obstacle facing Elgort’s Jonathan, a stiffly stoic aspiring architect, is compounded by his suffering from an extremely rare condition that finds him and his brother John (also Elgort) leading distinctly separate lives while inhabiting the same body.

If the premise sounds like a high-concept Farrelly Brothers comedy in the vein of “Stuck on You,” think again. Here, as seen exclusively from straight-laced Jonathan’s point of view, his relationship with his partying sibling is depicted through the video diaries each leaves for the other during a 24-hour period that sees Jonathan occupying the day shift while John emerges only at night.

To his credit, Oliver, who wrote the impressively contained screenplay along with Peter Nickowitz and Gregory Davis, directs the production with a studied precision, echoed by Zach Kuperstein’s exacting cinematography, which captures the sterile environments.

But while Elgort, whose big breakout role was in last year’s “Baby Driver,” does a decent job of delineating the two characters and Patricia Clarkson reliably comes through as their sympathetic doctor, the clinically distancing production never forms a meaningful bond with its audience.

“Jonathan.” Not rated Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. Playing: Arena Cinelounge, Hollywood; also on VOD.