Worrying sign for this movie that it opens up on an actual movie set, in a "behind the scenes" kind of way, followed by a narrator blandly informing us that This is a movie and these are characters and they have stories to tell and such. Like, yes, I am aware of the concept of storytelling and of cinema.
Was this bit of fourth wall breaking meant for anything? Is there some manner of metanarrative unfolding in the film that borders on science fiction or some other manner of impressionistic/surreal storytelling?
Incredibly minor and pointless spoiler alert: No. It's just there for some reason. It's also at the end where we pan off to see modern day caterers on set and the actor/narrator staring at us and repeating some insignificant line that was spoken earlier in the film but which had little to no importance then, and even less importance by the end.
This completely meaningless and distracting bit of framing device feels like a bad sign that this film takes itself way too seriously and considers itself to be more profound than it actually is.
The story being told is rather neat, one where you don't know when it starts whether this will end up in tragedy, religious revelation, or science fiction. As it unfolds (not as slowly as some of the other reviews suggest), and it becomes clear what is happening, it remains an entertaining story with a genuinely compelling atmosphere heavily accentuated by the eerie, non-traditional soundtrack.
It was a good enough movie, but the pointless framing device at the beginning and end just screams pretension and gives off an extremely undeserved vibe of self importance.
