A love letter to its lead actor and a hieroglyphics tablet to everyone else, Lee Isaac Chung’s abstract character-study-cum-chamber-piece follows its titular character (Amanda Plummer) as she reads to blind people and cryptically stares off into space. After magically healing a drifter (Will Patton)—the same one who’s been providing the deep-thoughts voiceover narration—she’s directed to a grown Asian man (Tetsuo Kuramochi) who may or may not be an alien. Love, naturally, blooms. Those of us who were hoping that Chung’s debut, Munyurangabo (2007), signaled a bold new voice may be disappointed with the reheated Malick leftovers served here, though the gorgeous cinematography and generosity to Plummer’s emotive gifts almost make up for the mumbo-jumboness of it all. Almost.
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