The only way to approach independent movies is with a healthy dose of forgiveness. But, maybe due to technology, the basic level of proficiency has made many super watchable.
The picture wastes no time getting into the story, avoiding the weak beginning endemic to many self made projects. Richard and Bill are working on a technology that can record memories and allow them to be "re-experienced". Richard's wife Hadley is the guinea pig.
Bill is established as an anti-social, anti-technology genius reluctant to share the code even with his business partner. Richard is an angry, controlling brute, establishing the conflict.
We mostly follow Bill, who is confused, though not as much as his father who has dementia. A session with a therapist establishes Bill lost a wife and child in an accident he has trouble remembering. This plus his déjà vu and persecution complex might be what lead him to fear the memory technology, leading to an affair with Hadley and a confrontation with Richard.
The performances are serviceable, though the story arcs are not involved - characters intensify rather than change. Still, no one does anything stupid or unbelievable to forward the plot. The main flaw is a lack of tight editing which most indies contend with. The scenes of Bill's confusion with reality could easily be cut in half. The ending meets the ideal of being both surprising yet inevitable. If Hitchcock had done science fiction, this is the kind of ending he would have adored.
If this was truly done on $5,000, it's a brilliant job.
