An enigmatic phone call from a psychic catapults a family into a state of suspended belief while waiting for their recently deceased mother to be resurrected. One sister believes the claim and the other staunchly opposes it until she encounters a chance at love giving her hope that anything even resurrection is possible. A discordant struggle between sisters plays out in a world where the virtual and real often converge.
Review
A talented newcomer on the scene has utilized the language of film to demonstrate a sophisticated and engrossing portrait of a family falling into dysfunction yet struggling to hold themselves together. Unable to deal with the passing of her mother a young woman named Emma hears a voice on the phone telling her to wait "they will return." Of course this is something that she interprets as a sign that her mother will return from the dead. Why not It seems perfectly reasonable.
Oddly enough her sister Angela incredulous at first reluctantly goes along with the fantasy. That starts the mystery why would two such upper class twits allow themselves to believe in this modern fairy tale Once you buy the concept and are willing to suspend your disbelief you become lulled in by the sumptuous images the endless wandering through the woods and odd behavior by otherwise normal people.
The cinematography is outstanding for a lowbudget project such as this with stunning shots of a wildfire (apparently it was shot sometime during a massive fire in Oregon) and the shots of the planes flying over dropping long clouds of pinkish fire retardant are strangely beautiful.
Chloe Sevigny as Emma performs exactly as expected she sells the idea wholeheartedly. Jena Malone as the sister supposedly with her head together is less believable but does manage to convey the baffling contrast between someone who doesn't for a moment believe in the idea of resurrection yet is willing to give in for the sake of keeping her sister happy. She develops an outside interest in a manboy named Ben who has a poet's soul but who cannot seem to penetrate whatever barriers she has constructed (we never find out exactly why).
There are a couple of minor subplots one of which involves a younger brother and one of the other neighbor boys but it is given short shrift and then tossed on the back burner which is a shame since it would have added some much needed interest outside of the two main characters.
There is also some professional work done by a young girl named Lana Green who has a small but dynamic role as Emma's daughter and should be a leading actress in another 10 years.
Overall a few plot lines get lost and some of the lines make no sense whatsoever but the beautiful shots more than make up for the shortcomings.