Tribeca 2018: Jonathan Review

This will be the first of several reviews from this year’s Tribeca film Festival. To follow our coverage, click here.

Synopsis: Jonathan leaves the office everyday at noon. When he gets home, he goes to sleep. Every morning he wakes up and there is a breakfast prepared for him along with a video telling him about the second part of his day. (IMDB)

Starring: Ansel Elgort, Suki Waterhouse, and Patricia Clarkson

Writers: Gregory Davis, Peter Nickowitz, and Bill Oliver

Director: Bill Oliver

Rating: n/a

Running Time: 95mins

Trailer: n/a

This film is a tough one to describe without spoiling it so beware while reading. If there was a non-spoilery way to describe the film, it would be that’s it’s a film about the unique bond between two brothers.

The film was about a man named Jonathan (Elgort) who lives a carefully planned and regimented life because he had to share his body with his brother John. Each brother had different personalities with Jonathan being the responsible and uptight brother and John was more of a free spirit. The sci-fi aspects of the story were kept to a minimum so the story can focus on the relationship between the brothers. Their particular arrangement, along with their different personalities proved contentious at times. As they learned more about one another, their deep-seated feelings towards each other came to the surface, allowing them to grow even closer as a result.

The best part of the film was Elgort’s excellent dual performance as Jonathan and John. While physically similar, he showed range in making them both distinct and interesting characters with plenty of emotion (despite the fact that we saw more of Jonathan than John). They were both compelling to watch and his likability made it easy to invest in both on an emotional level. Waterhouse and Clarkson were solid as Elena and Dr. Mina Nariman respectively.

Overall, this was an excellent and original sort of sci-fi film with a hard to describe premise involving a compelling story about a unique kind of brotherhood, elevated by a career best performance from Ansel Elgort.

Score: 9.5/10

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.