Her eventual reveal is as flat as the drawing. There’s a woman in it that he doesn’t recognise. He’s plucked it from a troubled mind that depends on the medication in his draw. The biggest indicator that we’re in one world and about to catapult into another is the drawing that completely enraptures Greg on his desk. The opening is a head-spinning assault of ringing phones and a heaviness to Greg’s vision that makes it clear something isn’t quite right. Greg Wittle (Wilson) is on the bad end of a divorce, slumming it in hotels while he tries to concentrate on his day job at a tech company suspiciously named Technical Difficulties. Not even Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek can rescue this dull sci-fi fantasy from glitching all over the place, and you’d expect a double act of this calibre to be a lot more fun than it is. The result is a mashup of ideas about the human condition that struggles to make any sort of impact against weak characters, senseless action, and a silly script. In Bliss (2021), Cahill’s latest sci-fi drama and Amazon Prime Original, the American director makes his narrative leaps but abandons all of the groundwork needed to make it work. For these films to work you need a strong script and relatable characters who you can empathize with enough to make the leaps of faith required to move with the profound swings Cahill’s stories often make. This is always to be admired, and sometimes it pays off. Cahill ( Another Earth, I Origins) is something of a sci-fi indie gem, having carved out a space for himself working with big ideas on modest budgets, and stretching them further than they ultimately reach. Though unfortunately, you won’t find it in writer-director Mike Cahill’s new film.
“Watching Owen and Hayek let loose on an entire city without consequence is an encouraging prospect, but it’s filmed with such casual indifference that any excitement vanishes alongside the drama”
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