MOVIE CRITIQUE PAPER: COHERENCE

Abarquez, P.J.

Coherence is an attestation of the line “Little is much.”. Written and directed by James

Ward Byrkit, the movie beings like a typical indie movie one has probably seen: a group of

well-off people attend a dinner party at their friend’s house somewhere in Northern California

on the night that Miller’s comet is supposed to pass over near earth. They carry out the typical

greetings, eat, drink, and banter with each other. Then, things become bizarre.

One can easily tell how low-budget the production of film was. It’s shot with different

video cameras that are often shaky while much of the audio overlap making some of the dialogue

incomprehensible. A lot of the action in the film was filmed inside the house. However, when the

characters set out outdoors, it’s difficult to ascertain what’s going on because of the dark

lighting. Amazingly, none of the movie’s technical drawbacks prove to be deal breakers. Once

Coherence explores into its premise, the spectator is expected to come down with a bad case of

the creeps. It is undisputedly more of a horror film rather than a terror film. The characters are

terrified with the unknown, then by the implications of what they’ve found out. What’s being

jeopardized in the film is not just the cohesion of their physical bodies but their identities, as

well.

This is an ensemble movie, but there is one person which the movie constantly follows,

Emily (Emily Prime). Initially, a blackout occurs marking the start of the intertwined realities.

Looking outside, they see a lighted house, unaware that it is actually the same house from

another reality. Two guys proceed to the lighted house to make a phone call crossing over the
portal. Their doubles come in from another reality. No one realizes this switch. As the story

progresses, the characters begin to realize that the other house is another version of theirs. Later

on they realize that there aren’t just two but multiple realities and that once the comet passes,

each reality will be stuck permanently with whoever stays in it.

Moving forward, different groups leave the house and cross over the portal resulting in

everyone jumbling across different realities. Due to a quarrel between the characters, Emily

Prime becomes frustrated and decides to leave on her own. She travels from one reality to

another until she stumbles upon a version of reality where no one is fighting. In this version, a

blackout never occurred implying that this group never left the house and therefore having a

normal evening.

Emily Prime wants to replace the Emily from this reality as she sees how happy Emily is

in this version. She sneaks up on her double, drugs her, throws her in the car trunk, and later

attacks her in the bathroom. Emily prime then proceeds to the living room where she faints. She

wakes up the next morning. She tries to check if the others have run into the double or not. She

goes in the bathroom and sees that Emily is gone. Emily Prime goes out of the house and meets

Kevin, her boyfriend. Then, Kevin receives a phone call from Emily. Upon answering the call,

he looks at Emily Prime suspiciously and she stares back with guilt. The film ends with the

reality where Emily Prime is permanently having 2 Emilys in it.

Byrkit’s Coherence is a Sci-Fi film which tries to comprehend Quantum Physics.

Specifically, it tries to dive into the superposition property of the particles in quantum universe.

According to the theory, particles don’t exist in one state or the other, but in all of its possible

states at once. For example once you roll a die, according to quantum theory, the die exists in all
its six states simultaneously. Another example is the Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment

which was actually brought up during the movie– A cat and a vile of poison are in a box. Regular

physics would say the cat is either alive or dead. Quantum physics says that the cat would be

alive and dead. ​When we observe a quantum object, we affect its behavior. Observation breaks

an object’s superposition and the universe is literally duplicated, splitting into one universe for

each possible outcome from the measurement. Once the observation is made, the universe splits

into as many as the number of possible outcomes. In this case it is six, and within each universe

the player has got one of the possible numbers. It’s a quantum conundrum, as the comet is

passing through, universes have collided. Their state of existence is in multiple realities, until the

comet passes. It will split into their corresponding reality only after the comet has passed. For

now, they are stuck in a quantum limbo.

Coherence’s lo-fi aesthetic may not be as “smart” as other films in the sci-fi industry but

it feels more lived in, less antiseptic. Its transformation of mundane interactions into something

otherworldly is almost like Nacho Vigalondo’s film Extraterrestrial. But Byrkit’s film is very

much its own thing. It’s an urbane dinner-party movie that turns into something magnificent,

terrible, and strange – and yet it never quite stops being an urbane dinner-party movie, never lets

up its tone of ironic refinement. Though it becomes pretty muddled after a certain point, once

you get around it, it leaves you a bit unnerved. It is very well made film and has some

compelling performances. Coherence is a gentle film, but you walk away from it with your brain

on fire.