Sometimes we underestimate how great of an impact we have on the world and the people around us. One simple kindness you show to a complete stranger can mean the world to them, just as much as one slight could. Meanwhile, in our constantly moving world, there are those who use their fellow men and women as stepping stones to reach higher, all the while ignoring the pain and suffering they cause along the way. While many believe that some sort of karmic retribution is waiting for those people, there are plenty of cruel people that still roam the world unchallenged. The Wave firmly states that there is a harmony that exists in the universe and those who disturb it are in for a rude awakening.

Frank (Justin Long) is a lawyer working for a crooked law firm and he has just discovered a loophole in a client’s life insurance policy that means the company doesn’t have to pay the grieving family a cent. On the verge of a promotion for this discovery Frank as decided to go out drinking and ends up at a crazy house party. Upon meeting a mysterious drug dealer, he is coaxed into trying a special drug that will help him calm down. Suddenly waking up the next day he finds that his wallet is missing, his cards have all been maxed out, and he can’t find the girl he was with last night. He soon realizes his problems are minor when the drug he took begins to warp reality and time around him.

In a movie that bends reality and space around our main character through drugs, I find there are moments where the wild drug-fueled dialogue feels off and forced. There is a scene where Frank and his associate are at the home of the drug dealer from the party in hopes that he may know the whereabouts of the missing girl. Later on in the scene, Frank takes a massive amount of drugs, but before then he seems like he is already wigging out and on edge. While Justin Long plays so much of this role in a believable fashion for someone who is trying to comprehend his reality melting around him, this was a moment that seemed messy and out of place. This combined with the drug dealers monologue about all his drugs and how he feels about them, while very important to the plot, come across as sloppy.

I find that the film’s greatest strengths come from a beautiful message and a brilliantly tight ending. I would argue that if you traded out the holiday esthetic for a Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas one, The Wave is a modern-day retelling of  A Christmas Carol. While Frank is nowhere near as powerful as Ebenezer Scrooge, he still has just as much of a devastating impact on a family that he must atone for. While his journey of self-actualization is aided by associates, a homeless man, and the beyond, and not ghosts, there is a real sense that he is learning his place in the world and how he can use it to save others. When all is said and done and everything has been put back together The Wave fills you with just enough hope that some of those people who trod on others will turn a new leaf, or at least get what’s coming to them.