Elsewhere

Written and directed by Nathan Hope, Elsewhere follows upbeat teenager Sarah (Anna Kendrick) as she finds herself drawn into a life-threatening mystery after her promiscuous best friend (Tania Raymonde’s Jillian) vanishes one night – with the bulk of the film subsequently detailing the Sarah’s ongoing efforts at figuring out just what happened to Jillian and whether or not her disappearance is connected to the abduction of several other teenagers. It’s clear right from the get-go that Elsewhere possesses few attributes designed to capture and sustain the viewer’s interest, as filmmaker Hope places a consistent emphasis on stale and downright pointless elements that grow progressively problematic as the tedious narrative unfolds. The total absence of compelling characters only exacerbates the movie’s far-from-enthralling atmosphere, with talented performers like Kendrick and Jon Gries – cast as the strict father of one of Sarah’s friends – forced into the skin of underdeveloped figures who rarely behave in believable or logical ways (ie Sarah seeks help from a police officer that she had earlier identified as a possible suspect). There’s consequently little doubt that one’s efforts at working up any enthusiasm for the protagonist’s increasingly tedious investigation fall entirely flat, while the horror-movie finale is nothing short of absurd and seems as though it belongs in an entirely different film (although one can’t help but love the sequence in which a character alerts the villain as to his presence by stepping on a rake, Sideshow Bob style). The final result is a pervasively meaningless endeavor that’s simply unable to justify its existence, and it’s ultimately difficult to envision anyone – even fans of the various actors – finding much of anything worth embracing here.

*out of ****

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