Uncertainty (film)
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''Uncertainty'' is a 2008
indie Indie is a short form of "independence" or "independent"; it may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Gaming *Independent video game development, video games created without financial backing from large companies *Indie game, any game (board ...
crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...
thriller film Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
written, produced, and directed by U.S. independent filmmakers
Scott McGehee Scott McGehee (born April 20, 1962) is an American filmmaker. He is a Columbia University graduate and did graduate work in the Rhetoric department at UC Berkeley. He was born in California, and currently resides in New York City. McGehee is ...
and David Siegel and starring
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (; born February 17, 1981) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his leading performances ...
and
Lynn Collins Viola Lynn Collins (born May 16, 1977) is an American actress. She has made television appearances in ''True Blood'' (2008), '' Manhunt: Unabomber'' (2017) and '' The Walking Dead'' (2021–2022), and is recognized for her roles in films such a ...
. It was first released at the
2008 Toronto International Film Festival 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of the ...
. Distribution rights were acquired by
IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...
and it received limited release on November 13, 2009. It was simultaneously made available to cable viewers via
video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of o ...
. The film was shot in HD on the
Arriflex D-20 {{short description, American digital motion picture camera The Arriflex D-20 is a film-style digital motion picture camera made by Arri first introduced in November 2005. The camera's attributes are its optical viewfinder, modularity, and 35m ...
.


Plot

Bobby (
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (; born February 17, 1981) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his leading performances ...
) and Kate (
Lynn Collins Viola Lynn Collins (born May 16, 1977) is an American actress. She has made television appearances in ''True Blood'' (2008), '' Manhunt: Unabomber'' (2017) and '' The Walking Dead'' (2021–2022), and is recognized for her roles in films such a ...
) are a young couple who have been together ten months. Kate is 11 weeks pregnant. They can't make up their minds where to go on the
Fourth of July Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...
, or whether to have the baby, so they decide to flip a coin. After Bobby flips the coin, they both run off
Brooklyn Bridge The Brooklyn Bridge is a hybrid cable-stayed/ suspension bridge in New York City, spanning the East River between the boroughs of Manhattan and Brooklyn. Opened on May 24, 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the first fixed crossing of the East River ...
in opposite directions. From that moment on two separate storylines are followed. One storyline takes place in Brooklyn, where Bobby and Kate decide to go visit Kate's family. On the way they pick up a stray dog, whose owner they try to locate. Kate's family has its share of family drama, with an uncle who is institutionalized and suffers from memory loss, a brother who died five years earlier, and a sister who is taking a year off before going to college, much to her mother's dismay. The other storyline takes place in Manhattan (beginning in Chinatown), where Bobby and Kate find a cellphone belonging to a criminal who values it at $500,000. They try to set up an exchange, but after narrowly escaping pursuit from a killer, Bobby throws the cellphone onto a passing boat. Both storylines end the next day on a bridge, with the lines "What do you want to do now? / What do we do now? I don't know. I guess we just keep going". The storylines are also set apart by colors of vehicles and Bobby and Kate's clothing. In the Manhattan/Chinatown storyline, they both wear easily recognizable yellow, a dress for her and a T-shirt for him, they took a yellow cab, while in the Brooklyn storyline, they are dressed in more subtle shades of green and Kate is driving her green car. In the first scene on the bridge Kate wears the yellow dress from the Manhattan story, while Bobby wears the outfit he'll wear in Brooklyn.


Cast

*
Joseph Gordon-Levitt Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt (; born February 17, 1981) is an American actor. He has received various accolades, including nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his leading performances ...
as Bobby Thompson *
Lynn Collins Viola Lynn Collins (born May 16, 1977) is an American actress. She has made television appearances in ''True Blood'' (2008), '' Manhunt: Unabomber'' (2017) and '' The Walking Dead'' (2021–2022), and is recognized for her roles in films such a ...
as Kate Montero Brooklyn/Queens * Assumpta Serna as Silvia Montero *
Olivia Thirlby Olivia Jo Thirlby (born October 6, 1986) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Leah in the comedy-drama film ''Juno'' (2007),Louie, Rebecca (June 28, 2008).Olivia Thirlby is smoking in 'The Wackness'". '' Daily News, location ...
as Sophie Montero * Louis Arcella as Diego (Kate's uncle) * Nelson Landrieu as Felix Montero * Manoel Felciano as Greg Montero


Reception

On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
the film has an approval rating of 50% based on 26 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4 out of 10. On
Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
the film has a score of 45% based on reviews from 9 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Todd McCarthy of Variety magazine called it "Half formulaic and half simply unimaginative."


References


External links

*
Production blog by filmmakers

Article
from ''
Filmmaker Magazine ''Filmmaker'' is a quarterly publication magazine covering issues relating to independent film. The magazine was founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay and Holly Willis. The magazine is now published by the IFP (Independent Film ...
'' {{Scott McGehee and David Siegel 2008 films 2000s English-language films American independent films 2008 crime drama films American crime drama films 2008 independent films 2000s American films