The Future (3/10)

December 14th, 2011

Whimsy. Quirkiness. Depending on your opinion, these are either good things in a movie or bad. In previous reviews I’ve used the words both positively and negatively. You pays yer money, you makes yer choice. A morality tale that asks the question ‘What if?’, The Future shrouds its simplistic theme with a talking moon, a talking cat, a walking t-shirt and one person’s ability to stop time.

My first thought, as the end credits rolled (mercifully at the end of the film and not somewhere quirky like half-way through it) was that I didn’t understand what I’d seen. Then I wondered whether I comprehended it just fine, but that there wasn’t very much to understand. Despite the fancy gimmicks, maybe The Future was nothing more than an answer to a question. Written by, and starring, Miranda July (2005’s Me and You and Everyone We Know), I expected more.

Sophie and Jason (July and Hamish Linklater) live in a one-room apartment in Los Angeles, and have been together for years. In their mid-thirties, but unmarried and childless, they decide to adopt a cat that’s on its last legs. Paw-Paw is her name, and vets say the cat will die within six months. The couple commit to looking after the cat for this time period, but there’s a snag; the cat has to remain in care for a further month for treatment. This month gives the couple a defined time period. Their lives will change when they’ve got a cat to tend for, they think, so this final catless month is a countdown of sorts, one that will compel them to reassess their lives.

Paw-Paw tells us a lot of this, by the way, from her vets cage. Well, I say it’s Paw-Paw, but I wasn’t sure. The cat is voiced by July again, with a different voice, and you only see the cat’s paws. Is this an important fact? No idea, sorry. Is the fact that Paw-Paw’s voice is that of July’s significant? See previous answer. Regardless, the decision to adopt the malaised moggy has triggered some sense of crisis in Sophie, who cancels the couple’s internet. Harsh. The plan is that they will now have oodles of time to assess their lives, having saved countless hours from their aimless web-surfing. What they choose to do with this time speaks volumes. He favours the fight against global warming, she has an affair.

I know my readers well: What about the walking t-shirt and the talking moon? The latter I can kind of explain – everybody needs somebody to talk to, even if it’s an inanimate object – but I’m afraid the former had me stumped. No matter, I’m sure it means something to somebody. I skipped over that and chose instead to contemplate the characters instead, but they’re pretty unappealing too. She’s self-obsessed, he’s going nowhere, and so is their relationship, which is at the grunting stage. I suppose there’s a philosophical message here – there almost certainly is, given July’s track record – but the characters involved aren’t listening and neither was I.