Director: Sam Esmail
Cast: Justin Long, Emmy Rossum
Running time: 91 minutes
Certificate: 15
Synopsis: Set in a parallel universe, Comet bounces back and forth over the course of an unlikely but perfectly paired couple’s six-year relationship.
For Dell (Justin Long) and Kimberly (Emmy Rossum), a meeting in line for comet-watching at an LA cemetery (yes, really) might just turn out to be fate as we experience the relationship’s less-than-auspicious beginning, middle and possible end – although you’ll end up with a migraine if you try and piece any of this timeline together thanks to parallel universes, jarring time-travel sequences and a distinct lack of logical structure offered by Comet.
Although it might not be the first thing to happen in Comet, when Dell and Kimberly do first meet, Kimberly is on a date with someone else. Why is this of importance? First time writer/director Sam Esmail would have us believe that Kimberly finds the over-bearing, narcissistic, negative and loquaciously tedious tendencies of Dell charming enough to agree to ditch her date and spend her evening and subsequent six years of her life with him. Kimberly herself isn’t the most charming of creatures but choosing to ask the audience to spend ninety minutes absorbed in a love story of two wholly unlikeable characters is no easy feat and Esmail’s ask is just too great for Comet to succeed.
There are occasional bursts of well-observed comedy in Comet‘s largely insipid script but they are too few between the dreary dialogue and occasional badly judged observations on subjects such as rape and eating disorders.
The blurring of time in Comet is likely trying to say something earnest about memory, significant moments and living in the present. Whilst it fails at these attempts, it does manage to chalk itself up as evidence that a burdensome plot, wearisome characters and tiresome script will result in a movie that is instantly forgettable.
Comet is in cinemas from 3rd July.
