Ava's Impossible Things

This film seemed to try to be so emotional in the beginning but it just seemed so fake. You have a mother with Huntington's disease who wants to die; a daughter who takes care of her who also has Huntington's, and another daughter not really in the loop because Ava (Chloe Farnworth), the daughter who takes care of their mother, doesn't tell her anything. There are closeups of crying, like 'real' emotional crying but no one has any tears. The composition; which should enhance the emotional scenes, is lackluster in delivery and barely audible. It's more audible in the fantasy that Ava has (which, other than Ava, everyone there believes is reality, and the real world is Ava's fantasy.) I first thought this would be like a Walter Mitty type film. It's not, in any way, except maybe the fantasy part. The acting's standard, photography, etc., are all standard; like paint-by-numbers, or something. Never really going outside the lines. There is one character, Sweet P (Marc Hawes), who knows he's part of Ava's fantasy but everyone else do not. At the core, the fantasy and reality are not different. The story arc is the same, just different settings. Kind of makes the fantasy nonsensical, or the reality. I never really felt this film went anywhere past the beginning. 40 minutes in it's still the beginning of the film; and then realize there's only 40 minutes left of the film and I wondered when was it going to get past the start of the film. Perhaps that's on purpose so the fantasy always continues and reality never sets in; and that would work if the fantasy world wasn't just a mirror of reality, as it is in this film. Part of the fantasy aspect reminded me of the animated film 'Inside Out', where Ava created imaginary people who are just emotions. She keeps trying to remember who they are but they're just her individual emotions. Other characters, including the emotions at times, are just fodder. I think the film probably would have worked better if it started as fantasy and gradually became reality. Starting it as reality just created (as stated) a mirror image and made the overall story bland and uninteresting. I felt there was no real attachment to characters, especially Ava. 52 minutes in there's a sex scene between Ava and Jessa (Lauryn Nicole Hamilton) that moved in slow motion, mainly showing them kissing, but also showing their breasts briefly but then Ava lays down and Jessa goes down on Ava, and then for six minutes of slow motion with Ava's breasts shown in the last 2-3 minutes of it. Frankly, I just didn't get that scene. It lasts for a long time with a loud song playing; well, it seemed long probably because of the slow motion. As an heterosexual guy, it was lovely to watch, very sensual and sexual simultaneously but as a movie lover: it felt like it was inserted in with absolutely no reason to be there but to titillate the audience watching. It goes back to reality in the last nine minutes of the film. Overall it's an 'eh' movie.

It's mostly fantasy, and so it seems a bit glossy, and it hinges on a dilemma that some may find objectionable. And it's LGBTQ friendly, which may put off others. But it's still deeper and truer to life than 75% of what you're watching now; unrecognized hurts and selfishness masquerading as selflessness and how protecting yourself can end up walling you off from the people you need, and who need you. There's an unnecessarily long (gratuitous?) love scene towards the end that's distracting, so it's not perfect, not flawless acting, last scenes a bit formulaic and Hallmark-ish...but still, worth a watch.

Regardless of any other issues, this movie lacks quality in both acting and story presentation. Chloe Farnworth has to give a performance filled with various strong emotions and most of the time the performance does not ring true; it does not seem real. Because of the dream sequence, some of the details of the plot are unnecessarily confusing. The dream sequence could have been fanciful and enjoyable, but it is mostly spent in various disagreements. The sequence includes some characters who correspond to real life, and some who are creations of Ava's imagination, for example Depression, Denial, and Acceptance. There is a strong subplot regarding relations between semi-estranged sisters. I have two parental warnings: 1) There is a scene over 5 minutes long of two women shown topless and they are kissing and being passionate with one another. They are explicitly revealed above the waist. One of the women is obviously pregnant in this scene. I am leaving out a lot of detail about this scene for decency's sake. 2) Much of the movie is about a disagreement between Ava and her mom about her mom ending her life. Her mom has Huntington's which is extremely debilitating and she is already suffering severe loss of function. Ava does a poor job presenting any reasoned case against it so the movie leaves us with a lopsided view of a controversial topic.