Whoever says that there aren’t any more original Sci-Fi movies obviously hasn’t seen Coherence.
Release Date: September 19, 2013 Runtime: 89 minutes
In James Ward Byrkit’s feature-length directorial debut, eight friends gather together for a dinner party on the night that a comet is expected to pass overhead. While they’re together, strange things begin to happen. The power goes out. Cell phones suddenly crack. There are knocks at the door. However, they notice that there’s one house in the neighborhood with power and, hoping to use the house’s phone, go to investigate. To give away any more than that (and what they find when they get there) would only spoil the fun of unraveling the film and its mysteries for yourself. With a film like Coherence that carefully pieces out its reveals as the suspense builds, it’s best to go in cold.
Made on a shoestring budget and shot over the course of five consecutive days, Byrkit allows the focus of the film to be on the characters as they attempt to unravel the mystery around them. Gone are the special effects, big set pieces, and bombastic musical scores of recent blockbuster Sci-Fi films; Coherence is pruned down to its essence: its characters and how they react with each other in the face of an uncertain future.
In the beginning, the amateurish-looking picture and editing feel cheap. However, that slight turn-off is easily forgotten as soon as we’re introduced to the characters. Very early on in the film they feel incredibly genuine. There are no cookie-cutter stock characters here, serving as background or filler. Instead, they each have separate and distinct personalities that are only heighted by the cast’s fantastic acting. With a low-budget indie film like Coherence, it would have been incredibly easy for it to succumb to the pitfall of bad acting. So it’s a pleasant surprise that it doesn’t. The acting is fantastic and the authenticity of the characters is due in part to the actors’ skillful improvisation. Byrkit purposefully shot without a script so the actors would have genuine interactions with each other and mirror the characters’ journeys of discovery. And it works. The character actions have a fresh spontaneity that films that try to script spontaneity can’t seem to achieve (basically any Paranormal Activity-like found footage-style horror), and the film’s free-flowing dialogue is both tantalizing and authentic as it ranges from humorous to tense, and hints at the current and past relationships of the characters.
This is especially admirable since high-concept, speculative films always seem torn with their focus: characters, or style? Coherence doesn’t choose. The characters are developed, while the stylistic choices such as the house’s (which happens to be the only setting, aside from the street) warm lighting creates an inviting atmosphere for the viewer to enter into this fictional world. Because of this we’re tricked into a false sense of security and the tension, suspense, and horror builds and builds until you begin to feel as if you, too, are part of the group trying to figure out what’s going on.
Despite its scientific ideas and mind-bending premise, Coherence has few faults (though ending each scene ending by cutting to black gets old). Though the ending ends up getting tied up in itself by getting a little more complex than it needs to be, it’s almost forgivable since the rest of the film is such a treat. Its premise is original and its plot and execution captivating throughout.
With style and content reminiscent of 2011’s Another Earth and old Twilight Zone episodes, the well-paced 89 minute film manages to focus on characters and plot without skimping on either. As the tone goes from humorous, to tense, to suspenseful, it’s (cleverly) built to keep you guessing where the story’s headed. And though the film’s mystery is ultimately revealed, the film’s characters, ideas, and masterful execution guarantee that you’ll be thinking about Coherence long after the answers are given.
8.5/10
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