Movie Review: Empathy, Inc. - This black-and-white sci-fi indie feels like a hidden gem until it turns into gravel.
There is an unavoidable truth rooted within the form of narrative fiction—the way a story ends, the final 10%, can matter much more to how it’s received than the 90% that preceded it. While otherwise messy works can sometimes be rescued by a satisfying and/or surprising conclusion, the reverse hardly ever happens. A bad ending almost always spoils the whole.
Recently bankrupted venture capitalist Joel and his wife, Jess , are forced to temporarily move in with Jess’s parents while they try to figure out their next move. Despite his wife’sreasonable request to leave her parents out of investing in yet another risky tech startup, Joel selfishly convinces her father to pony up for a seemingly revolutionary VR experience, Empathy Inc.
The introduction of these characters and the central premise is quite absorbing. The small cast all acquit themselves well, as suspicion and tension mount. Director Yedidya Gorsetman makes deft use of the often-claustrophobic space and menacing shadows that more than justify the choice to present the film in black and white. So far, so good. When the big story twist is revealed in the movie’s second act, the audience is fully on the hook for a taught little thriller.
Then comes the third act. On the heels of a crackerjack setup, bristling with low-key menace, our hero finds himself in too deep and needing to find an escape, or get one over on his pursuers. It’s here that the film’s momentum abruptly ceases as about five movies’ worth of plot is dumped on the road in front of it. This creates a morass of would-be mind-fucks that renders the swiftly paced mystery into a turgid pileup of conceits looted from shipping containers stored on the good ships.
’s third act sours and leaves a bitter aftertaste. Maybe human memory is ultimately the real problem here—even the most flawless Olympic routine is forgotten if the performer face plants at the end .
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