There’ve been many films that have attempted to tell a story in a nonlinear fashion. The few that have been able to pull it off successfully have become iconic. It is a very tricky thing to do with the risk of throwing off the viewer. It is almost as if an artist is creating a portrait, and if the shading is off just a hair, it can look like a completely different person. Writer-director Daniel Poliner tackles this concept in his drama Come Find Me. Is it one of the iconic titles, or does it fall short?
Christina (Victoria Cartagena) is a young attorney who has just found out that she may be pregnant. Considering where she is at in life, she is not sure if having a child with a man she barely knows is the right thing. Her mother, Gloria (Sol Miranda), is near retirement and is having some health issues that make her wonder how much time she has left. Christina and Gloria’s relationship is a bit of a rocky one, as they do not always see eye-to-eye. Gloria tries to support Christina the best she can but also tends to be overbearing.
What brings these two together is their individual experiences that are actually quite similar in a very unique way. Both women experience dreams where they are talking to people from their past (even their past selves) that either guide them on their paths or make it more confusing as to which direction they should go. Not only that, but the most unique part of Come Find Me is that they both experience a literal ball of light inside of them during their dreams. These lights mean different things for Christina and Gloria but have the same effect on them individually.
“…they both experience a literal ball of light inside of them during their dreams.”
As I stated before, the story is told in a somewhat nonlinear way. By the second act is where things start to get a bit confusing. The first part has Christina as the main character, while the second has Gloria at the center. During the latter half of the film, I was expecting Christina to come back into the story and be the center once again. That never happens. This makes the film seem as if it is two different features even though the stories do entwine during parts of all three acts.
As we see each separate narrative unfold, the leads’ individual arc jumps back and forth, making Come Find Me very confusing at times. It seemed as if the plot was playing out what could happen if a character made a certain decision, then showed that outcome. All this did was make me wonder which story was actually happening, making it difficult to be invested in the story at all. When the last couple of scenes played out, I began to somewhat gather what was going on. But by that time, it was already too late for me to truly care about how everything was going to play out.
The moral of the story is a good one, but it has to be told to us, the viewers, by the characters. It was almost as if Gloria did not state at the end what the moral was, it may take the average viewer some time to realize it. Come Find Me is quite a confusing film that you will likely have to watch multiple times to understand. I will say that the acting by both Victoria Cartagena and Sol Miranda goes a long way toward being a saving grace. I just wish the story itself was clear enough to make me invested.
"…the story is told in a somewhat nonlinear way."
