Uncertainty

In "Uncertainty" a young couple's lives have different paths to take based on the flip of the coin. But they don't tell us what this coin toss means or its significance, so we don't get to understand its implications or consequences.

The young couple is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lynn Collins. Gordon-Levitt is a talented actor and is good here, but he's better than the character. We are given no reasons to care about these characters and we know so little about them it just makes everything less interesting. I don't know much about Collins, but from this all I can gather is that she only knows how to play sexy. I would like to think that Gordon-Levitt would pick girlfriends based on more than just sexiness.

"Uncertainty" is supposed to be an interesting examination of lives travelling different ways, but the plot devices used are so lame that the two stories are just uninteresting. It is shot well for its low budget, but one should be wary of watching movies written without a script.

The movie follows two possible outcomes of a single day for Bobby (Gordon-Levitt) and Kate (Lynn Collins). The two stories are almost like parallel universes, featuring the same couple. During the film, we alternate between scenes of both of those "realities". This could have made for a confusing narrative but directors Siegel and McGehee make sure we always know which story we are following with simple devices (primarily, colors and clothing but also good editing choices and writing).

Gordon-Levitt and Collins have amazing chemistry, which is showcased in two very, very different stories. One runs very much like a down-to-earth drama, where they go spend a day with Kate's family. The other story is more akin to an action thriller on a budget, where Bobby finds a cell phone that is valuable to extremely dangerous individuals.

The starting point of the narrative split is a single decision, that is eventually made on a coin toss. The whole film appears to explore the uncertainty (duh) of choices before us and how making a decision will lead us on a path that will, again, lead to more choices. It is good food for thoughts and I could appreciate how the writers went for two radically different stories, to highlight how different the future can be.

Both stories had excellent acting and were well-paced and engaging. Where I had a bit of a problem is with the thriller story, which ended abruptly and was rather unsatisfying in its resolution. Nonetheless, the whole exercise was organic. Lynn Collins was a revelation for me. As for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this excellent actor keeps on impressing with great performances and solid, off-beat career choices. Many people like to talk about the "curse of child actors" where they disappear as they get older. Gordon-Levitt brilliantly defies this trend and oozes charisma and talent.

It's the Fourth of July, and Kate and Bobby are struggling to make a decision: do they stick with tradition and spend the weekend with Kate's family, or do they set out on their own for a spontaneous adventure? After making their initial decision, an alternate narrative emerges to show just what would have happened had they chosen to do otherwise. While the decision-making process may seem mundane, the implications of each choice are profound. Sure, a holiday with the family doesn't seem nearly as exciting as an impromptu romantic trip, but that doesn't mean it will be any less dramatic. As the stories diverge and a "what if" scenario becomes reality, it soon becomes apparent how much one seemingly minor decision can ultimately affect the rest of our lives...First of all, I really like the concept of alternative narratives; it's not exactly something new but it hasn't been explored that much. One of the narratives is more of an emotional drama and the second one is a tense thriller. The directors also made a very interesting choice, by associating a color, yellow and green, to each storyline. Thanks to the use of this color scheme the viewer never gets lost. Another interesting aspect is the fact that the script was written without dialog. The dialog was improvised but it is so natural and organic that one would never known, because of this, the relationship between the two main characters, Kate and Bobby, is one of the most believable relationships I've seen on the screen. Bobby is played by the extremely talented Joseph Gordon-Levitt and he was great as always, he never disappoints and I hope he keeps choosing this intricate and off-beat scripts. Kate is played by the beautiful Lynn Collins (True Blood, Wolverine). She was absolutely lovely as Levitt's love interest and delivered a great performance. Despite the fact that Uncertainty was filmed mainly with a hand-held camera, the cinematography is great with very interesting shots of New York City. The musical score is subtle but very efficient with beautiful slow paced melodies that compliment the scenes very well. Despite all this great attributes, it's important to mention that Uncertainty, despite being very engaging, is also experimental; it won't please everyone. I was hoping that the narratives would somehow be tied together and that never happened... and the end, although appropriated, doesn't bring any closure to the story either, so, some people will find the film a bit pointless, I can't say that was disappointed by that, the film just took a different direction then I expected. In the end, Uncertainty is all about this couple, the decision-making process and the implications that certain action courses have on our lives. It's quite an unusual experience but definitely worth watching.

7.5/10

This film is good. But its different, i watched it with some friends, nobody liked it, other than me. but im kind of an oddball like that. It has two lateral plots, involving the same two leads. I thought using the colors green and yellow to differentiate was original and effective. Joseph Gordon Levitt is great in the lead and shows his range here, while Lynn Collins isn't bad either, but sure is beautiful. I had previously seen her in True Blood and was impressed, but here she takes her acting to a even higher level and leaves you entangled in her character's emotions. I thought this film has a very unique concept, and uses suitable cinematography which wouldn't work in any story, but sure does here. Overall an underrated gem from 09 that only has 329 votes on IMDb... wow...

The course of our lives is determined by the countless decisions - both major and minor - we make on a daily basis. So much so that one simple and seemingly insignificant act of choice can set the course for our entire future, including where we'll go to school, who we'll wind up marrying, whether we'll be killed crossing that street or live another fifty years because we took a different route entirely. That is the theme explored in "Uncertainty," a dual-level drama produced, written and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel.

The movie opens with a young couple - played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lynn Collins - standing on the Brooklyn Bridge, obviously on the brink of making some major decision regarding their future. After a coin flip, one heads in one direction (to Manhattan) and one in the other (to Brooklyn), leading the couple to have distinctly different experiences in what might be thought of as parallel universes. In the Manhattan-based scenario, Bobby and Kate, dressed in yellow, are plunged into a bizarre cloak-and-dagger tale set off by the finding of a cell phone in the back of a cab (a bit like "24" if it were made on an indie-film budget); the other direction leads to a more mundane domestic drama wherein the lovers, dressed in green, celebrate the 4th of July with Kate's family, including the overly critical mother who drives the young woman crazy with her negativity and interference.

The different-paths-equals-different-outcomes theme has been explored before, most notably in 1998's "Sliding Doors," but here the why and the wherefore of it all seems to have eluded the filmmakers - as it does us. Each storyline is interesting enough in its own right - and the acting and direction are first-rate throughout - but they fail to come together in any kind of a meaningful way. They literally run along parallel tracks, with no point of convergence from which we can deduce a point - unless it's that bright yellow is probably not the best fashion choice when you're trying to outrun a hit man.

Moreover, the movie doesn't lay down the ground rules for the scenario in a very coherent or consistent fashion. The synopsis for the film says that the couple uses the coin flip to determine how they're going to spend that holiday weekend. Yet, it's obviously much more complicated than that, for in one version, Kate is pregnant, but in the other she isn't (or, at least, it's never mentioned). In one, she is the star of a Broadway play; in the other, she says she works at a restaurant. And the two couples obviously live in different parts of town. Perhaps, consistency really is the hobgoblin of little minds and we should be looking at the larger picture here, but, all the same, the movie leaves us with a lot of unanswered questions, which may not necessarily be a bad thing, but it can make for a frustrating experience at times.

I recommend watching "Uncertainty" for the risks it takes and the mood it sets (Peter Nashel's evocative score is very helpful in that regard) but, when it comes right down to it, the movie seems a commendable but over-elaborate effort at stating the obvious.