At the beginning of Uncertainty, two lovers stand at the center of the Brooklyn Bridge and flip a coin in the air and run in opposite directions toward Brooklyn and Manhattan. In this high-concept re-invention of La Vie Double de Veronique and Sliding Doors, the lovers, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Lynn Collins, meet double versions of the other one when they get off the bridge and play out two separate stories that are inter-cut back and forth.
In one story, they find a mobile phone in the back of a cab, and rather than giving it to the cabbie, the guy calls the last few numbers on it to try to return it personally. Several gangs of thugs want the phone and are willing to pay them money or kill them to get it. This action story is titled 'Yellow' in the opening and there are thematic chromatic elements and highlights throughout this story set in Manhattan.
The other story has the two of them going to her parents' house on the Fourth of July for a meal and fireworks show. She has found out that she is pregnant and is struggling about how or when to tell her overbearing mother what she's going through. This kitchen-sink story is called 'Green' and also has color elements throughout as it unwinds in Brooklyn.
I think I like the idea of this movie - that two people could have totally different things happen to them at any moment - but it is very sloppily executed here. The two stories seem to be totally randomly selected and basically don't resonate together at all.
On top of this, the action side of the story, the Yellow section, is really badly organized and choreographed, with no real suspense from the chases as they travel mostly on the subway away from their pursuers. (Also, somehow the concept of just leaving the phone on a bench or something never comes up.)
Curiously, in the Yellow story, there is no mention that the woman is pregnant and struggling about whether to keep the child or not. This is strange because this is the entire emotional core of the other story and they could have at least mentioned it in passing here.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is pretty good in this, though I don't think he is used best in an action role in general. He's a great serious dramatic actor and the Green story is much more up his alley. Lynn Collins is good enough in both parts and is absolutely gorgeous looking.
Both halves are rather unfulfilling. The Green side has a bit more soul and the Yellow one is a bit more thrilling, but neither one is wonderful. It's hard to make an action movie on a small budget and the cheapness of this project comes out clearly here. Co-directors/co-writers Scott McGehee and David Siegel do a nice job of making the visual look interesting and play well with green and yellow tones, but they should have spent more time on the script figuring out what the point is. What we get is to unconnected stories that add up to less than a whole.
Stars: 1 of 4
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