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Heads or Tails

Life is nothing but a deluge of decisions. Speed through the yellow light or stop, roast beef or tuna, attend law school, try for Broadway. Or in the case of Uncertainty (opens today in NYC and available on IFC Channel Video-On-Demand), go for a lazy family barbeque in Queens or a dim sum-shoot-and-run in Chinatown. Granted, neither Bobby (the adorkable Joseph Gordon-Levitt) nor his lovebird Kate (Lynn Collins) can see those futures fully, but that’s the point. A flip of a coin on the Brooklyn Bridge and off the dual arcs go!

In the Chinatown scenario, a lost Treo thrusts the pair into a cat-and-mouse scramble, fraught with finality and riveting tension. Meanwhile in alternate Brooklyn, family drama surrounding careers, a lost dog and one very pregnant (literally) question is subtle and simple but no less vital.

By stylishly weaving the two concurrent realities together, directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel (The Deep End) create a heady, engaging, if somewhat gimmicky and self-impressed meditation on the lurking “what if” behind simple, and not so simple, choices. With vivid handheld camerawork and completely improvised dialogue, the film has an intimate, freewheeling vibe. Anything and everything seems about to happen. When fate meets agency, whether your life is a thriller or a mood piece is, frankly, your choice.


Uncertainty opens in NYC today at the IFC Center. It is also available on the IFC Channel's Video-On-Demand now.