The Future (2011)

I can see why people like Miranda July. Really, I can. But she’s one of those “take it or leave it” filmmakers; one who is clearly talented and seems to be making exactly the films she wants to make, but sometimes that style isn’t exactly everyone’s cup of tea. While her vision is something to be admired, I am more inclined to leave her work than take it. There is always room in my heart for a quirky indie comedy, but July stuffs her films with so much of this quirk and seemingly random conversations about minutiae that it can be enough to drive you off the deep end. July seems to look for profundity in the strangest of places, and while I applaud the ambition she always seems intent on throwing in enough insufferable moments that I can’t completely get behind her work. At least her first film (Me and You and Everyone We Know) had a cheeriness and bright color scheme that seemed to justify these moments. The Future, her latest film, is mostly a self-indulgent drag that makes the fatal error of putting July’s character front and center. A compelling and engaging screen presence she is not.

July plays Sophie, whose relationship with Jason (Hamish Linklater) is going through a bit of a rough patch. They are planning on adopting an injured cat, who they name Paw-Paw, as a way to try and feel productive and helpful. (And in case you’re wondering what the cat thinks of all this, it narrates its parts of the story. In the most irritating voice imaginable.) When they consider the amount of time they may have to devote to this cat, they begin to rethink their lives and how they’ve lived them so far. Thinking they’re stuck in these boring existences forever, they decide to quit their jobs and just live for the next 30 days until they bring the cat home. Their plan is to accept whatever comes at them, and perhaps they will cross paths with something profound that will change their lives for the better. Or maybe for the worse.

Strangely enough, the sequences of cat narration—voiced by July herself—are among the least maddening moments in the film. Many early conversations between Sophie and Jason are just the worst (“Let’s build a device that turns on the faucet for us so we never have to get off the couch!”), and their characters aren’t nearly as endearing as they need to be. You and Me and Everyone We Know remained tolerable—and was frequently good—because there was an innocence to the individual stories even when they went into slightly strange territory. Their conversations were trifling, but they seemed to add up to a grand message about how great life and love can be. The Future is equally ambitious, if not more so, but these events don’t seem to be happening to real people. You and Me was unmistakably a July film, but the large cast of characters sometimes disguised her irritating tendencies. Here you can see July pulling the strings in scene after scene.

There is one great sequence in The Future that comes late in the film, as Jason must consider how to react when his relationship is about to implode. Curiously enough, this might be the most ridiculous moment in the film, but it absolutely works. When July isn’t being quirky for quirkiness’ sake, she actually has quite a bit to say. Strange, ambitious scenes like this one succeed because it seems to make sense given the situations of the characters. You and Me and Everyone We Know had plenty of those moments, and they kept that film above water. For the entire first half, The Future just sits there in its preciousness and has little to say about anything that hasn’t been said before. Only this one scene adds anything new to the equation. This is a film with a lofty goal, but only occasionally does it seem up to the challenge.

The most problematic aspect of both Miranda July films so far is that she doesn’t make for an inviting lead. Me and You and Everyone We Know’s best scenes had little to do with her, and even when she did show up she never had to be anything more than her quirky self. The character of Sophie in The Future requires a more complex performance than I think July can give, and her demeanor never changes no matter what situation she gets herself into. Maybe that’s the point, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. (That’s more or less my opinion of The Future in a nutshell: I see what it’s going for, but I choose to reject it.) July is undoubtedly a bright artist with ideas and ambition, but she has yet to make something that doesn’t at least mildly irritate me. If The Future had at least an ounce more of the energy found in You and Me, I might have been more willing to get behind it. It’s surprising and saddening to me that July chose to follow that film up with something this dreary. If you are still on the Miranda July fence as I was, The Future is more likely to repel you than convert you.

GRADE: C+