Miranda July is an interesting and clever person.
At least that's what she thinks.
July — an author, filmmaker and performance artist — first ventured into features with 2005's "Me and You and Everyone We Know." By all accounts, this film was meant to be a whimsical look into the screwed-up lives of lost souls young and old. A cloying, execrable way of making one want to commit slow seppuku with a plastic fork, more like it.
To July's credit, "The Future" is slightly more watchable. Indeed, some of the observations in her second film are spot-on. When yuppie hipsters Sophie (July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater) decide to adopt a sick cat, they are almost hyperaware of the commitment this requires. Consequently, the couple decides to live it up in the last three weeks before the cat is ready to come home, but the pressure to make something of this time may drive them apart for good.
In their quest for meaning, Sophie and Jason are at times insufferable, and July seems to realize that. Certainly their actions — to seek out a sign salesman and to quit a tech-services job for a door-to-door volunteer gig — are not glorified, but shown as desperate attempts. Meanwhile, the cat (voiced by July) waits with heartbreaking patience for its new home, becoming the most empathetic presence in the film.
If only "The Future" weren't so overrun with preciousness. Saturated with twee musings set to a soundtrack of wistful blues and July's cutesy manner of speaking. Obsessed with being the voice of a disaffected generation. If it didn't try so hard, it might actually convey a profound message.