(***) 

The new umpteen-story building has just been completed but their relationship is still under construction. That’s the premise of British writer/director Andrew Haigh’s interpretation of Taichi Yamada’s same name novel. Adam (Andrew Scott) a screenwriter and Harry (Paul Mescal, Aftersun) are the only two inhabitants in their apartment house on the outskirts of London. The introvert and extrovert bond very slowly during a too normal and near boring dating ritual. 

As one knocks on the other’s door, an ordinary encounter blooms. Harry: “Hello.” Adam: “Hi.” Harry: “I saw you looking at me from the street.” The courting continues. Heading in a direction that Adam seems too conservative to enjoy—at first. Then their hard partying ways start and peak in a bar scene adventure influenced by ketamine. It’s the film’s most trippy and invigorating sequence. 

 A subplot about Adam visiting a couple in the ‘burbs is what gives this psychological/drama its eerie ambiance. A warped reality includes Adam’s cryptic rendezvous with mom (Claire Foy, Women Talking) and dad (Jamie Bell, Billy Elliot). Warped because they died when he was 12. Mom says to him: “Look at you. You were just a boy.  And now you’re not.” Dad: “Sorry I never came into your room when I heard you crying.” He’s in a trance. Hypnotized by the past. Writing about his life but so absorbed he forgets where he is. 

Credit Haigh for messing with the audience’s collective mind, for the longest time. As the weirdness of Adam’s double life takes hold, the sheer magnitude of his delusions become more and more engaging. Scott and Mescal make a nice, odd couple. One the nutty bore. The other an incorrigible druggy. Foy and Bell are winsome in every scene. Great ensemble acting takes audience to an ending that skillfully blends what is, what’s not and what has happened. 

The more you think about what you’ve seen, the more the visions resonate. Long after the end credits you’re still left with a haunting feeling. Like you’ve just been sideswiped.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O97iSjvqBlY

For more information about the New York Film Festival go to: https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2021/

Visit NNPA News Wire Film Critic Dwight Brown at DwightBrownInk.com.