Coherence (2013)

(Amazon Streaming, September 2021) It would be amusing but untrue to claim that the biggest problem with Coherence is its incoherence. Upon reflection, its biggest problem is its slackness, and that issue comes straight from the intersection between the film’s subject matter and the way it was put together. But let’s back up a bit. Coherence is, in most ways, a freak success. Shot with a micro-budget and improvisational techniques at the house of its writer-director James Ward Byrkit, it has, since 2013, been hailed as a triumph of no-budget Science Fiction, often hailed in the same breath as Cube, Primer or The Man from Earth. It has earned a surprising amount of attention over the past decade, and a consequent amount of hype to go with it. I’m a latecomer to the film — I saw it creeping up the voting charts, but didn’t get around to watching it until, well, now. I may have waited too long — My viewing was more skeptical than anything else, and that skepticism only grew as the film lost control of itself. The premise is not that complex: During a dinner party, friends discuss the passing of a comet and then start noticing strange details that suggest several parallel universes intersecting. If you were hoping for scientifically plausible Science Fiction, look elsewhere: the comet excuse in hand-waving, and the mechanics of the parallel-worlds superposition is pure dramatic hokum. It’s meant to set up an atmosphere of paranoia and suspicion as characters leave and come in, diverging from the original dinner party group. As the characters discuss their situation, there are call-forwards and call-backs, all slackly justified by the whole “parallel universes!” excuse. Suppositions teeter on top of a stack of suppositions, everyone turns violent at the drop of a hat, and the stakes of this madness are not too clear. It feels raw and unpolished, which finds an explanation in Coherence’s improvisational production, where actors were encouraged to riff off some notes. Improv does make for an unusually striking no-budget feature, but it’s a noticeable drawback when trying to plot a complex tangle of overlapping realities and characters. The contrivances are excessive and the ending feels rushed after an hour of repetitive happenings. My contention is that such tight premises have to be scripted very precisely—to the comma if needs be. Coherence isn’t: it’s chaotic, far-fetched, dubious in its interpretation of human nature and ultimately underwhelming in how it mishandles a few good ideas. The result isn’t too bad for the investment — and another proof that special effects aren’t always required for Science Fiction. But it’s a mumblecore home movie writ large, and while it’s more interesting than its straight-drama counterparts, it falters when measured to the more rigorous standards of science fiction. And that’s a case of spotlight rot if I ever saw it: when it’s overhyped, a better-than-average hidden gem becomes the target of criticisms it’s not meant to sustain.