Walking into this film, I thought I was going to see an
intriguing sci-fi drama about two people who couldn't be apart for medical
reasons beyond their control. Instead what I saw was a sappy and poorly told
story about a boy and a girl who didn't understand each other or their disease.
A rare psychological disorder links Noah to Emily. The two meet
when they are quite young, but when they are together bad things always happen.
Somehow Noah is caught on the wrong side of a tragic event, and when he wakes
from a coma he must find Emily so that together they can understand what has
happened.
Apart was worth a shot.
With the right script and cast this story would've been great. Unfortunately,
neither was available in this film, and the editing only made it worse. Told in
timelines and flashbacks, it was frustrating trying to figure out where we were in both time and place.
Each time I noted a flaw, I thought something might correct it.
However, each scene was more and more dull. The actors played their characters
in one note, and we never got to see them in depth. The supporting cast was
either completely unnecessary, like Emily's doctor (Joey Lauren Adams) who
added nothing to the story, or as bland as the leads in which they supported.
My biggest criticism relates to the disease that is supposed to
hold this entire story together. The audience is told at the very beginning
that there is this rare disorder that causes people to link together and that
the only cure is to separate them. This is really the last time this disorder
is mentioned or explained. I couldn't believe that the story wouldn't tell us
more but there we were, out of the loop on the underlying purpose of the film.
To be blunt, Apart fell
short. The poor acting, editing and story took away whatever chance this film
had at being something special. Apart
will only leave you frustrated and let down, and in terms of a film, neither makes
this film worthy of a recommendation.
