The best way to describe this short film is by saying that it is about equal parts Surrealism and Absurdism. The plot is just too strange to imagine without massive amounts of drugs or a severe head injury! Yet despite all this strangeness, it's still a very good film.
One thing obvious is that this is unlike almost all recent short films because it has an amazing budget and a ton of professional acting talent--people with big names in Hollywood. The executive producer is George Clooney and Newton Thomas Sigel (director of "House" and a man with many credits for cinematography) so-wrote and co-directed. Lisa Chang, a new-comer also co-wrote and co-directed. However, I assume Sigel was the reason we see Hugh Laurie in a bit role, though other familiar faces (such as Richard Kind and Selma Blair) are in the film as well. Plus, when you see the special effects and professional look to the film, it's obvious this is not a typical "starving young artist" production! The plot is totally absurd. A woman (Blair) complains about feeling pains inside. However, after seeing many doctors, she's gotten totally contradictory diagnoses from each. Finally, in a scene that will knock your socks off, a doctor (Elias Koteas) is sucked up inside Blair through her vagina while he's performing a gynecological exam!!! Inside, he discovers a vast world--a barren and cold wasteland. And from this point on, the film continues with this absurd idea and runs with it.
The film also is about loneliness and pain--that is where the surreal and metaphorical aspects of the film come into play. This all comes to the forefront when an earnest member of the TV audience (yes, by now she's become a TV phenomenon) crawls inside and appears to be lost forever.
This is one film you just need to see for yourself to understand and appreciate. I am sure it's just too weird or adult for some out there, but if you are patient, there is some depth and beauty to this strange allegorical tale.
One thing obvious is that this is unlike almost all recent short films because it has an amazing budget and a ton of professional acting talent--people with big names in Hollywood. The executive producer is George Clooney and Newton Thomas Sigel (director of "House" and a man with many credits for cinematography) so-wrote and co-directed. Lisa Chang, a new-comer also co-wrote and co-directed. However, I assume Sigel was the reason we see Hugh Laurie in a bit role, though other familiar faces (such as Richard Kind and Selma Blair) are in the film as well. Plus, when you see the special effects and professional look to the film, it's obvious this is not a typical "starving young artist" production! The plot is totally absurd. A woman (Blair) complains about feeling pains inside. However, after seeing many doctors, she's gotten totally contradictory diagnoses from each. Finally, in a scene that will knock your socks off, a doctor (Elias Koteas) is sucked up inside Blair through her vagina while he's performing a gynecological exam!!! Inside, he discovers a vast world--a barren and cold wasteland. And from this point on, the film continues with this absurd idea and runs with it.
The film also is about loneliness and pain--that is where the surreal and metaphorical aspects of the film come into play. This all comes to the forefront when an earnest member of the TV audience (yes, by now she's become a TV phenomenon) crawls inside and appears to be lost forever.
This is one film you just need to see for yourself to understand and appreciate. I am sure it's just too weird or adult for some out there, but if you are patient, there is some depth and beauty to this strange allegorical tale.