Indie Gems: Entanglement

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Finding where you went wrong.

Ben's (Thomas Middleditch) life is a complete mess. His wife just left him, and the opening scene is him failing at several suicide attempts. He's determined to figure out where he went wrong in life so he can attempt to fix it. He finds out from his parents that he almost had a sister. They adopted a daughter, but when his mother found out she was pregnant they had to give her back to the agency. With the help of his neighbor Tabby (Diana Bang) he eventually finds Hanna (Jess Weixler) and they fall in love. Don't worry, there's more.

This is going to be a strange review because I both loved this film and had a serious problem with its execution. I can't stop thinking about it. I actually watched it twice. (It helps that it's available to stream on Netflix and is a whopping 85 minutes long) First thing, when Hanna gets introduced, you're going to immediately think you walked into some manic pixie dream girl bullshit, but just stay with it. It will all make sense. Without getting into spoiler territory this film is obviously a study on mental illness and it takes a very whimsical approach to it. I think this works at the beginning, but not so much at the end. I felt there was a lot more this film could've addressed and it would have benefited by an extra 10 minutes.

The actors are wonderful. I enjoy Middleditch's work in Silicon Valley and he gets to show a bit more range here that I really enjoyed. Jess Weixler is always a welcome presence in film. Diana Bang was new to me and I really liked Tabby as well. 

At the end of the day, this is a heavy topic disguised as a romantic comedy. It asks you to question all of the tropes that go along with that as well. It's a delightful film that may annoy you after you finish that they didn't take a bit more care in it, but at the same time, were they ever aiming to do that in the first place? 

Grade: B

Watched on: Netflix

Memorable Quote: "I wanted to be awake again." - Ben (Thomas Middleditch)

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