A Trip to the Island

It has a haunting quality.

The acting was very good, and the actor who played the writer (Nick Mancuso), was particularly good. And what a great face!

I thought of so many things. First, there is the quantum theory of alternative universes, that is, at each interaction between particles all choices are equally realized, each one creating its own universe. Then I thought of Ingmar Bergman, who is mentioned twice in the film, and his movie Persona (1966). The two main characters keep switching identities. That was hard to follow, and very unsettling, but this film is more ambitious because of the number of characters involved. The last thought that occurred to me was the recent Everything, Everywhere at Once, in which a highly dizzying succession of alternative results are flashed on the screen. That movie was too ambitious and should have been edited down. What held it together was a mother struggling to keep the relationship with her rebellious daughter. In this case the film is ambiguous, enigmatic.

This film is philosophical, questioning what is reality and how reliable are memories. The cinematography is very good, the Toronto skyline, the vastness of Lake Ontario and the starkness of the island in fall or early spring.

It's a film for connaisseurs, not the mainstream.