O Futuro

I was excitedly waiting for this film to appear in the cozy theater in my town. I really enjoyed Me and You and Everyone We Know. When I saw the trailer for The Future I thought the character Sophie is very similar to Christine in the previous film. The feeling of both films are very similar and I say that as a compliment; it gives Miranda July her own unique voice in film.

When I watched the film I regretted having seen the trailer, as it gave away a lot of the key points in the story. I think this is a very good film portraying relationships between couples. I could see a lot of symbols in the film pointing at the gender stereotypes everyone is affected by as being part of a patriarchal society. I like the concept of the cat representing the union of the two people, and how Miranda shows pets in relation to the other couples in the story to show whether or not their relationship survived/withstood time. I think this film provokes thoughts and is meant to make people reflect about their relationships with others. It shows that miscommunication, fear of confrontation, fear of being ourselves, is what breaks relationships. He cannot love her if he doesn't love himself. She cannot love him if she doesn't love herself. We can't have decent relationships when we're not being honest with ourselves. Being honest with another person, loving the other person, comes second to being honest and loving yourself.

I don't understand why this film has so many negative comments in the reviews. I truly enjoyed this and hope to see Miranda continue with more projects.

An odd film seemingly about a couple, Jason and Sophie who are stuck in a relationship going nowhere

They lead a samey existence and reach a crossroads in their relationship. Just before this point they help an old stray cat, unsure whether they will be together to look after the cat the rest of its life they eventually decide they will adopt it and promise to return in 30 days.

Jason quits his job as a phone based IT support to educate the public of environmental issues disguised as tree selling. Sophie randomly find the telephone number of a man on the reverse of a painting and makes contact.

Jason finds an older guy who finds purpose in his life selling objects. Sophie discovers the restrictions of a suburban lifestyle.

Throughout this is the story of Paw Paw, the cat. A cat happy with his lot but then for the first time ever has discovered the human touch. Paw Paw is careful not to show too much to the humans but inside is ready for this move, indeed it seems it has been waiting it's whole life for someone to pick it up and want to care, and play and love this cat.

Thanks to Miranda July and her movie called The Future, we are offered a complex and peculiar story surrounded by an environment of insecurity that makes us wonder about our personal life expectancies. A couple in their thirties decides to adopt an abandoned cat. The cat has an injured leg, and so, they have to wait for a month until it is recovered from its illness to take it with them. Meanwhile, they start to think that they have to enjoy their last month of freedom, because the cat would not allow them to do so any longer.

The cat only appears physically once at the movie, but it has much more importance than that. In fact, it is the narrator. It helps the audience to be put into context, and it sometimes gives sense to some parts of the film that seem to be incoherent. A part from having an important leading role, it will be the one to break out the whole action; the fact of having decided to adopt it will be the turning point of a story that, at first, seemed to be set in a calm atmosphere.

Some important aspects of life are tackled. For instance, the uncertainty of the future is clearly shown. We have to assume that that is the way it is, we are in control of it, but we are not able to know about it. So, life would not be all about wanting to know more about the future, but to be ready to face what comes next. If we stop to think about the future we do not have enough time to live the present. We spend our daily life worried about the future, and what if that future does not exist?

The entire film is enveloped in an enormous pessimism. The way in which the characters act makes us predict that there is no energy in them and they are likely to lose. Instead of taking into account the advantages that life can offer to them, they only see problems around. They even see the fact of taking care of an abandoned animal as a problem, when that should be taken as a satisfaction. That offers the audience the possibility to decide if that behavior is right for you or not; it is a film that would make people think. Furthermore, it is a movie that favors self-reflection. Although the development of the movie does not make the moral to become evident, one can use the film as the starting point of a personal thought with a clear moral: It does not really matter what will happen next, we have to enjoy the everyday and make the most of it.

"The Future" is an excellent, surreal, cold comedy in the tradition of the great Spike Jonze & Charlie Kaufman films "Adaptation", "Being John Malkovich" and the brain-blasting "Synecdoche NY".

"Cold comedy" is a term I just made up to describe the way they make me feel. They make me laugh, but I also feel an uneasy chill up my spine. Maybe it's because the underlying story is somewhat cynical, with a chilly, brooding philosophy of life. But these films manage to poke fun of this hopeless condition in a way that tickles your funny bone.

I preface this review with a warning. As often, whoever wrote the DVD packaging is an idiot. This is definitely NOT a "whimsical romantic comedy" or whatever they advertise. So if you're expecting something cute & fun like "When Harry Met Sally", you might want to move on. Instead, what we get is a very, VERY oddball farce centered around a young clueless couple. If you liked "(500) Days of Summer" which, itself, is prefaced with the narration "This is not a love story", then keep reading because you'll probably like this movie too.

If you're an animal lover, particularly someone who has rescued a dog or cat from the local pound, you'll be drawn in instantly. The story begins through the eyes of a stray cat "Paw Paw" in a shelter, nervously waiting to be adopted by the couple before time runs out. The voice of the cat becomes the voice of wisdom throughout the film. I've never seen a film that takes such a thoughtful & innocent approach as through the eyes of a raggedy, injured cat waiting at the pound.

The first half of the movie is so bizarrely funny, with such unique characters living in their private bizarre bubble, it feels something like "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure". But now imagine "Bill & Ted" if it were directed by French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. Starting to get the picture...? In the director's commentary on the DVD, writer/director/star Miranda July calls this a very "still" movie. There are long breaks between characters speaking. There is a lot of silence, allowing us to soak in the depth of the moment. She jokes about one scene where the leading man dramatically rips off his headphones, and she calls it the big action scene, the equivalent of a car crash in this movie. Haha.

The slow, deadpan delivery makes the humor even more pervasive. I laughed out loud several times in the first half. But midway through the movie, the mood shifts suddenly and drastically. The remaining half is no longer a comedy but more like a soul-searching philosophical adventure. At first I hated the unexpected change (as the title of this review implies) because I was really enjoying the oddball comedy.

But, as the recurring theme of the movie implies, "the beginning" is only temporary. Life changes drastically. Love changes drastically. The plot, theme and mood of the film illustrate this perfectly. I can't say much more without ruining the story, so just be ready for anything. Ride this crazy roller-coaster to the end.

The acting and particularly the casting is flawless. The chemistry between the two leads, Sophie (Miranda July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) is so perfect you'd think they're soulmates in real life. Another excellent piece of casting is Joe Putterlik who plays the old man. He is NOT an actor! Miranda found him while answering an ad in the Pennysaver classifieds, and she was so taken by his authenticity that she cast him in the role.

Another thing I really enjoyed was the great use of symbolism. You have to pay close attention, or even see the movie twice like I did, to catch most of it. Especially in the 2nd half when things become very poetic and sublime, you have to be on your toes.

If you like surreal comedy, like the films I mentioned earlier, films by Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", "The Science of Sleep"), the early Johnny Depp flick "Arizona Dream", the Paul Giamatti comedy "Cold Souls", or maybe even the grandfather of modern surreal comedy "Catch 22", don't hesitate to see this movie. See them all. Whenever I stumble on a film like this, I'm reminded that cinema is a true art form.

An odd-duck couple who have had plenty of years to be married (read: get bored) and far too much time on their hands decide to adopt a cat. They can't pick it up for a month because it's undergoing some medical treatments, and they're warned that if they fail to arrive on the designated date the cat will be euthanized. The prospect of that last month of freedom before they make a commitment to something other than themselves opens up a fissure in their lives and threatens to destroy a complacency they had begun to take for granted.

The fact that adopting a cat counts in their lives as a commitment great enough to alter their lives forever should tell you a little something about the personalities of these main characters, and if we end up being fed up with both of them, and her especially, I think we're meant to. It's nearly impossible to sympathize with people whose lives are basically so cushy that taking on a pet takes on the momentous proportions of a major life event -- but then I think of my own life, and how good I basically have it, and how good even the most average American basically has it, and how most of my problems would seem pretty petty to a lot of other people out there in the world, and realize that maybe what annoys me about these characters are the qualities I see in them that most annoy me about myself.

"The Future" I think is a cautionary tale about what happens to people when they spend all of their lives worrying about what their lives could be instead of accepting what their lives actually are. At some point, everyone gets to an age where he or she has to simply commit to SOMETHING, whether it be another person, a child, a cause, a pet, a life path, a career. Whatever it is, they have to make a conscious choice to make the best of what they have and stop worrying about what could have been. Easier said than done, probably, or many many people would be much happier.

I liked "The Future" well enough while I was watching it, but I can't say it really stuck with me. Miranda July has an off-beat writing and directorial (not to mention acting) style that will probably turn off some. I'm o.k. with it, and I must say that for once it was refreshing to see a movie in which it's the female rather than the male who does a worse job of dealing with a mid-life crisis. Thank you Ms. July for equaling the playing field a bit.

Grade: B