I like filmmakers whose reach exceeds their grasp.  The folks who made Interface knew their budget was low and yet decided to make an elaborate sci-fi epic/heist movie about a pair of sisters whose father invented an interdimensional portal that allows them to travel across the multiverse to different dimensions to track down a working interface device that will allow them to enter the mind of their mother, languishing, dying in a coma, in an attempt to bring her back, all while a mob boss seeks the interface to bring his daughter out of a coma as well.  And that’s not even the complicated part yet.

The film introduces three sets of parents and children who are dealing with intergenerational trauma. Kaley (Makenna Perkal) and Claire’s (Samm Wiechec) father died in a hit-and-run accident, and now their mother is dying. Their father invented the portal, but they discover he was highly physically and emotionally abusive towards their mother for much of their relationship.  They also inadvertently and coincidentally meet the man who killed their father in a hit and run accident years ago, Peter (Havon Baraka). Meanwhile crime boss Mr. Palmer (Michael Sigler), whose daughter has also been in a coma for years after an accident, informs inventor Majed (Andrew Vela) that if Majed does not perfect a working interface that will allow him to contact and cure his daughter, he will kill Majed’s daughter Fatima (Ashna Sharan). Sound like a Syfy telenovela?  Feels like one, too. Sort of a Everything Everywhere All at Once but without the everything or the social relevance.

Interface is a bit over complicated, with martial arts fights, low budget CG, betrayals and reversals (many of which occur because the plot needs them to, rather than organically from the story).  The performances are uneven.  The audience is meant to feel the tension as the heroes race against the clock to find the interface and then use it to safely save Kaley and Claire’s mom and Palmer’s daughter.  But frankly the tension is missing.  Kaley intends to turn Peter into the police when they are done, but changes her mind after spending time with him.  Peter decides to turn himself in for the hit and run anyway, because it’s the right thing to do.  While this is screenwriting 101, the character shifts feel unearned.  They happen because they’re supposed to, not because the characters have actually changed.

Again, the artists behind Interface have reached beyond their grasp and bully for them for even trying.  I celebrate their work, even as I see the gaps between vision and execution, and hope to see more from them.