JGL on the phone to Chinese gangster. 'We're in the bank on the corner of Canal Street.'2 minutes later Chinese gangster arrives at bank.JGL's girlfriend, Caty, in a panic. 'Oh my God! How'd he find us?'JGL 'I don't know.'That just about sums up the nature of this film. They really didn't think it through very well. Indeed, it leaves you thinking very clearly that they had no script for this. Just 'make it up as you go along guys' seems to be the rule here and, well, it comes across as just made up. JGL is good, as he always is, but the rest of the cast went through the movie in 'actor mode'. There is the ubiquitous scene of families all talking at the same time over dinner; out of focus views of twilight in the Big Apple; and a totally unnecessary sex scene. Sure this was all done on a low budget but so was Napoleon Dynamite. I really cannot think of anything positive to say about this film, even though I would genuinely like to do so. One to be avoided folks.

For one time, there is a American movie who just wants to tell stories about an ordinary young couple and offers a new angle to shoot it: parallel lives. So there's a sure freshness coming from the movie and I encourage those choices. In addition, it's shot almost continuously on locations in NYC, in summer so it has energy, punch and coolness. The cast revolves around two sympathetic and promising new faces that are now all alone on the poster, Lynn and the smiling "Robin". There's a good chemistry between them and I was on their side.Unfortunately, the hopes don't make a good movie. The opening is awful: long still shots, with cryptic sentences and cut by black screen is a sure way to destroy any coherence. The couple then divides, running opposite on the bridge and then, we have the two stories, yellow and green, for Independence Day. If the yellow part about the found phone is a thriller, the other part is a dull soap in a family reunion. But, coherence, believability are left on the way as Lynn's family is totally Latino (why?) with dumb characters (Diego, the disappeared brother) and the chase is unrealistic (they are left by police when they report a murder, the criminal knows exactly in what building they have run...). And frankly, the parallel lives concept isn't very used: there's one event that happens in the two time-lines (the friend's party) but except that, you really think it's rather two couples played by the same cast as facts are really attached to one choice, either green (pregnancy, family) or yellow (job, home).So, finally, it's a movie that walks outside the usual paths, that is well played and directed but that's very poorly scripted.

A disappointing and direction-less affair, which is a pity because it looks great and the leads are engaging. I don't doubt that there is a complex treatise being played out here somewhere, but it is completely inaccessible to the viewer to the point where, for me, the actions of the characters became pointless and therefore frustrating. If you haven't seen it, watch 'Brick' to see Joseph Gordon Levitt give an excellent lead performance, or if you fancy some tricky time shifting malarkey, check out the excellent 'Memento' if you haven't already, watch 'Donnie Darko' again or discover the excellent 'Primer', which is a hidden gem that deserves to be seen much more widely.

When it comes to the crazy side of the coin, one of two things would have solved this young couple's dilemma: #1 Ditch the phone #2 Turn the damn ringer off, put it on vibrate or something. Then, as soon as you confirm that you will more than likely be killed before you'd be able to get any money, DITCH THE PHONE. and then change your blasted yellow outfits. This can be done long before prego GF is forced to run miles up and down stairs and into traffic, almost guaranteeing a miscarriage.Seriously, if you and your prego GF find a cell phone in a cab and foreigners start calling it and talking all kinds of scary mess, chuck that s--- out the window and get on with your life.Also, if you abandon my sound advice and the two of you find yourselves running and hiding from an Asian guy with a gun, tell your prego GF to stop making so many unnecessary piercing vocal noises- because this, along with the bright yellow matching hipster outfits, makes it really hard to hide from a gunman. Potential for a lot of suspense. But I had to constantly and viciously swat away nagging questions about their illogical behavior just to get some slight enjoyment out of this could-be suspenseful drama. And then the movie ends, and we assume they live happily ever after out of wed lock.