‘Brightwood’ Review: A Divorcing Couple Falls to Pieces Amid Tedious Time Loop Shenanigans
variety.comJ. Kim Murphy Break-ups are often protracted sagas, littered with fading sympathy, belated realizations and a lot of dead air — all irritations that define Dane Elcar’s low-budget “Brightwood,” a sci-fi tall tale that follows a couple on the downslope of a marriage that becomes mysteriously ensnared in a time loop while jogging in the woods.
Inelegantly extending the premise of his 2018 short “The Pond” to feature length, the writer-director quickly expends all interesting angles on his barebones premise.
Though his feature debut is billed as a genre hire-wire act, Elcar simply isn’t enough of an acrobat to put on a show. Jen (Dana Berger) is out for a jog, pumping herself up to the beat of a podcast about how to prepare for divorce.
Dan (Max Woertendyke) is panting to keep up, gasping between apologies for being a messy drunk at the previous evening’s party, soiling what was supposed to be a celebration of his wife’s promotion.
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