Diverge

If you are looking for a hidden gem look elsewhere. Just like the Oscars movies, this one is only for the "professional" reviewers. Its fairly boring. The acting is horrendous at times. Not a good combo.

What started off as a promising premise quickly lost steam... and never really made a point

Great film, beautifully shot, thought provoking and not standard Hollywood crash boom bang crap. Don't miss it if you have a chance to watch it.

Was drawn into seeing 'Diverge' with a cool poster/cover, a very intriguing if not innovative premise and as someone with a general appreciation for the genre as said many times. That it was low-budget, which from frequent personal experience is rarely a good sign due to that there are so many poor ones out there, made me though apprehensive.

'Diverge' is a film it doesn't do enough with its potential (although there are far bigger wastes of potential in film) and could have been much better. 'Diverge' is very weak with a lot of big problems. It certainly could have been far worse, considering the large number of films seen recently being mediocre at best and terrible at worst. There is very little to recommend here but it's not completely irredeemable.

The best thing about 'Diverge' is the sets/scenery, that look like a lot of care and time went into constructing them. Rather than limited and drab, they have elaborate atmosphere and they are nicely and slickly shot.

Music is similarly atmospheric, and avoids being over-bearing or too much of one mood, the sound isn't too cheap either. The lead acting is reasonable.

Rest of the acting however is pretty negligible. The whole cast are ill served though by very clichéd and sketchy characterisation and a too sparse script that felt incomplete and with a lot of ramble and cheese.

Despite the sets impressing, it can be too obvious that there were budget limitations and that it was made in haste. The editing is sloppy in particular. The story doesn't really get off the ground (the direction likewise), with a lot of the film dragging as a result of being over-stretched with the amount of content more suited to a short film, and clarity is not a strong suit, it is not easy to follow at times and it is rife with ridiculousness and implausibility too glaring to ignore. The ending felt under-cooked and the pace drags with too many scenes that go on too long and easily could have been excised.

In conclusion, weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

At first glance this film is a pleasant little discovery. The problem is it's neither as fully realized nor as polished as it should be to qualify as that one-in-a-million-diamond-in-the-rough indie film discerning viewers search for. For my money it is not as bad, nor as great as other reviewers have suggested. But if you are tired of the usual one-dimensional mindless drivel flooding many streaming services you could do a lot worse than Diverge. I would just temper your expectations a bit. It is a low-key, intimate variation of Twelve Monkeys (or any project where someone travels back in time to avert a pandemic) although it provides some original variations of its own. It is fairly intelligent - if not as intelligent as it, or it's characters, should be. Some of the scenes feel underdeveloped as scientists and pharmaceutical big-wigs talk about the points pertinent to the plot, but do not seem to be well-versed in the science or even high level corporate manipulations. It is competently made on all levels, with believable performances all around - although Ivan Sandomire is weakest any time he has to stray from introspection. The director is to be applauded for creating some visually interesting images, managing a low budget effectively, and being brave enough to embrace a certain visual poetry. Yet at the same time the film lacks energy and momentum. It's a little too quiet for it's own good and I can forgive a leisurely pace (I am a fan of Tarkovsky's Stalker, and that is almost literally three hours in which nothing happens). It might stem from Sandomire's reserve. It might be the filmmaker's choice. I mention it as a fact, not necessarily as a criticism. I reserve my criticism for the ending, where in the interest of being "clever", the film takes the all-too common misstep for Time Travel films and stumbles into violating it's own shaky logic and ends up nonsense. With all the effort and good intentions expended by the writer/director up to this point I am disappointed he didn't recognize this (and a few other moments) for the flaws they imposed on his work. But if you are the type of viewer who can accept a twist or surprise for it's own sake then I doubt it will distract you as it did me. There's a lovely little poetry to it - I'll grant you that. It just makes no sense. Overall I wish the film could have done more with all it's potential, but it's a film I will say kind things about to my friends, and they all know how critical I can be.