Ava’s Impossible Things

Due to its low IMDB rating, I watched Ava’s Impossible Things expecting it to be terrible. And while I can’t say that the movie is out and out good, the film held more potential than I expected. However, much of that potential goes unrealized as the film’s core premise neuters itself of full emotional impact.

Ava’s Impossible Things opens on a young woman Ava taking care of her mother. Ava’s mother has Huntington’s. Ava has also tested positive for Huntington’s. In the last year or so, it has progressed rapidly. Ava is the primary carer for her mother. Her mother can no longer simple tasks unassisted and forgets major things like her other daughter, Anna. As such, Ava’s mother declares that she would like to end her life. This request shocks Ava and sends her into a fantasy world. In Ava’s fantasy world, her mother (now referred to as Claire) is planning on leaving the musical theatre show. This childlike fantasy gives Ava a chance to come to terms with her mother’s choice and mend things with her sister. It also gives her the motivation to rekindle a relationship with Jessa, a high school flame of hers.

During my viewing, I kept thinking that this movie could’ve been really good had it not had the fantasy sequence. This is obviously a stupid thing to want as that’s sort of the movie’s whole reason for existing. But the fantasy world is frustrating. Ava deals with serious problems like progressive illness and death in this childlike setting where it’s staged as a character leaving a show. This saps these scenes of much of their potential emotional punch. The premise of Ava’s Impossible Things is literally lowering the stakes of the actual situation via fantasy.

Had this movie been set in reality and it was about Ava having emotional conversations with her mother, sister, and Jessa, I think it would have been really successful. Within the fantasy world, some of these dialogue sequences do have emotional weight. However, it’s still undercut by the whole childlike fantasy gimmick. Ava and her sister having a straight forward discussion about Anna’s choice to not stay and take care of their mother is a much more emotional scene than Ava and Anna arguing over the fact that Anna fought to get a solo in the stage show.

Additionally, the fantasy world bothers me because the rules seem vague and random. Ava enters it without wanting to and has no idea what’s going on despite the fact that this is presumably her own imagination. Everyone except Ava has different names for no reason. And there’s also scenes of imaginary characters talking and sharing information that Ava is not privy to and doesn’t know. This suggests maybe these imaginary characters are sentient? This was all very distracting and again, undercuts this very drama-rich story about a woman and her mother with severe Huntington’s.

Also, not that Ava can’t multitask and work through a few things at once but Ava, you’re in this fantasy world to deal with your mother’s desire to die. Maybe don’t have a lengthy lesbian sex scene in the middle of all of this. Seriously, this sex scene is so long. Especially because the movie is only 80 minutes, this lesbian sex scene which runs the length of an entire song seems really unnecessary. It is admittedly well-choreographed and clearly shot by someone who knows how lesbians have sex but there’s little reason for it to exist. It just feels like a lot of time and effort went into something that probably shouldn’t be in the movie.

Had Ava’s Impossible Things been set in reality and dealt with the same topics with the same level of competence, I would’ve cried most of the way through. The acting is decent and the premise is so strong for great, emotional scenes. It’s frustrating that the film essentially chose not to do this premise to its full extent. There’s some good work in Ava’s Impossible Things but the fantasy world aspect takes away from these positives too much.

Overall rating: 3.9/10

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