The first thing that a hack reviewer such as myself wants to say about this independent mind-twister is that it’s very, very Twilight Zone-like—and then one of the characters makes that exact same reference and steals our thunder, dammit. It’s still true, though. This story of an unhappy married couple who go on a weekend retreat, per the advice of their creepy therapist (Ted Danson), where some strange things happen that I won’t spoil is seasoned in the same ironies that made the old Rod Serling series so powerfully disturbing at its best. The big difference is that this goes on for an hour longer and the makers struggle to fill the time. It’s smart stuff when it comes to the portrayal of a marriage on the skids. It observes the fractured communication, the circular arguments and the petty resentments with keen eyes and ears, not exactly played for laughs, but not deathly dry, either. Neither the husband or wife are any more fleshed-out, smarter or more sympathetic than the other. You’re not supposed to be fascinated by these characters; you’re supposed to see yourself in them, which is easy to do (though it’s worth noting that they don’t seem to have kids, so their problems are 100% about satisfying their own needs. Could this film be a critique of how childless couples tend to have more frivolous problems, but have more needy egos and maybe having a dirty trick played on them is exactly what they deserve and, perhaps perversely, what they NEED? No idea. Just a thought. I don’t have kids myself). The two leads, Mark Duplass and Elizabeth Moss, are perfect Joe and Jane Average white person types, two fresh scoops of vanilla ice cream melting over the next ninety minutes. They poke at each other with words that you’ve heard before, maybe even from your own mouth, if you’ve ever been in this go-nowhere situation. When the script takes a science-fiction turn, it’s absorbing until it becomes too much of a puzzle. Ambiguity is a delicate ingredient. Many stories benefit from it. In this story though, it’s a distraction from the real meat of the matter. What’s the wild explanation behind the fantastic events here? I don’t care that much. Far more interesting is what these people learned from the experience, but the movie glides over that in favor of a “what just happened?” climax. I kind of like this movie and I kind of don’t. Just another stormy relationship with no satisfying resolution, I guess.