(Canada, 95 min.)
Written and directed by Daniel O’Connor
Starring: Anand Rajaram, Brittany Allen, Joel Keller, Adriano
Sobretodo, Jr., Christian Potenza, Darryl Dinn
 |
| Anand Rajaram as Amit and Joel Keller as Brad in Look Again. |
“That’s the problem with first impressions,” growl Patty and
Selma between cigarettes on The Simpsons.
“You only get one.”
First impressions are inevitable as we glances at new faces and try to determine friends from foes in an instant. Suppose, though, that a person could have a reliable way to tell the good people from the bad ones without ever having to interact.
This topsy-turvy premise fuels writer/director Daniel
O’Connor’s lo-fi comedy Look Again.
The man making the snap judgements is Amit Gupta (Anand Rajaram), who wants to
end it all after too many people he trusted, like his co-worker and his
girlfriend, screwed him over big time. Two guardian angels appear just in time,
though, and before one can say It’s a
Wonderful Life (there’s even an angel named Clarence as a nod to the
Christmas classic’s influence on the film), Amit gets some snazzy specs of
which Jimmy Stewart could only dream.
These glasses, see, act like X-ray specs that reveal a
person’s inner character. They glow with a pink-like haze if a person is good.
They fuzz a dark and ominous static if a person is bad. Amit, ready to take on
the world, dons these hipster-like accessories and approaches new faces with fresh
confidence.
Look Again unfolds
the speculative scenario with light humour as a mix of situational comedy lets
Amit encounter the range of social life that hinges on these split-second
decisions of a person’s character. Whether it’s hiring a new employee or making
a move in the dating game, one never really knows a person without spending
much time with him or her. However, if Amit finds they have the right hue, he
can advance without caution.
His glasses give him the right tip about Tanya (Brittany
Allen), for example. She looks like a nice girl, reading her iPad invitingly in
a Toronto indie coffee shop, but looks can be deceiving. With the help of his
new tool, Amit makes a move that he might otherwise be too bashful to attempt.
Tanya, it turns out, really is a nice girl and they hit it off immediately.
Tanya, however, doesn’t take the same perspective on Amit’s
glasses. Most dates would run screaming if someone said that two angels gave
him magic glasses, but Look Again
isn’t a mirror. It’s a musing.
These new glasses actually prevent Amit from seeing the true
person, Tanya argues. She makes a case that people aren’t static beings. They
change, they grow, and they learn from their mistakes. Sure, people only get
one first impression, but they shouldn’t define a person for a lifetime. While this comedy seems eclectic and unassuming at first glance and proceeds to live-up to its forecast, first impressions rarely hold in real life.
Look Again offers
a charming comedy that asks audiences to confront the ways in which they
perceive their neighbours. The film lets its cast of characters, mostly offbeat
and quirky players, like Amit’s mom (Ronica Sajnani), who thinks she’s super
sporty just because she drinks Gatorade, ask Amit to see beyond superficial
judgements. The performances are mostly fun and low-key, although one face in the
third act is unbearably annoying (even if intentionally so), while Rajaram
provides an amiable anti-hero of the Don McKellar variety. O’Connor also
assembles a notably diverse cast and ensures that the characters of Look Again reflect the range of Toronto
locations that give the film much life.
Look Again opens in Toronto at the Kingsway on June 24.
