Jen (Dana Berger) goes out for a jog to stay away from Dan (Max Woertendyke), her husband. Unfortunately for her, Dan is stubborn and he decides to go along with Jen, despite the two having a fight the night before during a party. As they continue on their trail, they both get distracted from the path and ignore the signs of the abyss into which they’ll soon fall– although their desire is to get a divorce, the universe will work against them to keep them together, trapped in a loop at a lake surrounded by a forest.

Brightwood, based on a short film by Dane Elcar (The Pond), brings the multiverse dissection of a marriage on the rocks. At first, the plot is dire in the way that the characters don’t add elements beyond what they utter in the script– much of the detail that’s apparent in later acts comes from the dialogue as “fun” easter-eggs, but even then it may not be amusing when everything becomes a memory game for the viewer.

There are interesting elements that create tension and mystery throughout the plot. But after a while they become tedious due to the constant repetition and forced inclusion of these to show that sometimes there is not much to portray.

Although the effort shown in Elcar’s first feature film could be rewarded, there are things that discourage taking the first step to continue walking alongside the couple in thin ice. Jen and Dan’s intention to divorce predominates in the plot, but it only shows a very small portion of the reasons that lead one side of the marriage to insist on this decision. In a universe of movies where breakups and separations have been treated to the delight of the public, it’s impossible to find a cause to the defeat of “romance”, and the reason for could be attached to the lack of development beyond the events that happened the night before. If the purpose was to demonstrate how getting stuck with your partner can solve marital problems, there is no guide on that because it plays with the idea of a loop that duplicates timelines and omits the development of a couple of characters by including different versions of the same set– perhaps the intention was to show how love lives forever, but on another dimension.

Brightwood might look like it drowns in the same lake framed by its cinematography, but if the viewer can manage to see beyond the shortcomings this story has, it could earn a place in someone’s screen to be watched.

3 OUT OF 10 “NO SWIMMING” SIGNS