What It Was

This title is if anything, too fitting. I watched What It Was. And upon completion, I could not actually tell you what it was.

You know those cliche movie flashbacks of an action hero’s dead wife? Where everything shot in soft focus and there’s always a bunch of crisp linen and close-ups of physical contact. That’s the whole movie. What It Was is like a supercut of dead wife montage bits. The protagonist, Adina returns to New York and rekindles an old relationship while also experimenting with some new potential relationships. Each relationship leads to tender, well-lit moments that would be absolutely prime for an emotional flashback in a movie that actually has a plot.

What It Was is intentionally vague with timeline. Adina isn’t engaging in all these relationships at the same time. But the film opts to show every scene as if it were the present. So that’s confusing. If Adina has one lover who stands out among the other few, I can’t tell. The film really just feels like scene after scene of lovely, tender moments with various people. Why those tender relationships perhaps ended gets almost no acknowledgement. Instead, now she’s in a scene being romantic with someone new. And maybe later, there’s some voice over about missing her previous lover.

The visuals are really strong here. It takes talent to make an effectively nostalgic and tender dead wife montage! And this movie did it for 85 full minutes! I see you, focus pullers, cinematographers and everyone else. Ultimately, the movie is really pretty to look at. But all that pretty shit doesn’t cover the fact that the script is weak to non-existent. Sometimes, it even feels purposeful. Either they knew the script was weak and over-corrected, or they intentionally didn’t make a strong script because the visuals and tone will carry the movie, right? Yeah, no.

Pretty or not, everything about What It Was is difficult to connect with. The characters are extremely under-written. Adina gets some depth but even then, can I name you any distinct personality traits? Sure can’t. And the non-linear(?) timeline makes it further harder to find your footing in this narrative. It’s just so hard to care about these flat characters when I don’t even know if they’re existing in the past or present tense. There’s nothing to grab onto or sink your teeth into. The movie just meanders by and doesn’t provide a strong enough argument to really grab onto it.

What it Was hardly feels like a movie. It’s so thin on story. It’s a very pretty 85 minutes of filmed material, sure. But I don’t know what worth it has other than that. Unless the director wants to make a series of action movies with lead actress Arlene Chico-Lugo. Then, they could do 3 full movies of her with different, tragically dead love interests and effortlessly use footage from this movie for those flashbacks. But a whole movie of that shit? Maybe not.

Overall rating: 2.7/10

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