The Substance of Things Hoped For

"Substance" is the real thing: A haunting treatise on faith, science, fate, and free will. It's a film I will gladly watch again. Though I saw this film in rough cut, I'm still geeked about it. It just snuck up on me...I mean, it's everything an independent film should be: brave, thought provoking, well-performed, thumb-your-nose-at-Hollywood cinema...artful in both thought and word. "Substance" is a film you take to dinner after the show: one you want to share with others. Take a friend to it, and afterwards you will converse in the truest sense. Ray (Dr. Lessing) and Vanessa (Daphne) simply explode off the screen, and the newcomer, Lorena York (Kate), is electric. And I might as well say it now: This script will win scads of awards.

I'm giving it a "10" because even though the sound wasn't perfect, the film did everything a film should. Make no mistake..."Substance" is an important work of art, one I will most certainly make part of my collection (when it becomes available).

This is a beautiful and enigmatic story that possesses the sort of melancholy one expects from a Terrance Malick film. It deals with a young woman struggles with identity and meaning as she is faced with a difficult life-changing decision. Enjoyable performances from Ray Wise and Vanessa Lengies combined with its simple yet intriguing narrative holds your attention to the very end.

I was just so intrigued by the title and just gave it a try. The Substance of Things Hoped For did not disappoint. It's a subtle indie film tackling the issue of mental health in an unusual and thought-provoking way. Greg Morgan will be one filmmaker to follow.

Wow. This is the type of film that is sorely missing from the normal roster of mind-numbing, CGI-reliant, inane schlock that movie-goers are forced to choose from. The script is brilliantly conceived and crafted in such a way that you are pulled along delicately scene by scene until you're hit hard with a dramatic conclusion that left me and my friends talking for hours after we left the theater.

Faith and religion are topics that are usually only discussed superficially in film, but this movie throws them right in your face and makes you really think about them. But (and here's where the true mastery of this film really comes through) The Substance of Things Hoped For manages to do that without taking sides and without being judgmental. It does couch the message in a Judeo-Christian belief system, but that seems to be merely a device to tell the story. Insert your own set of beliefs and the message still comes through.

If, like me, you've tired of films with plot lines so thin they should check themselves into rehab with Nicole Ritchie, then I highly recommend checking out The Substance of Things Hoped For. It will make you think, it will make you talk, it might even make you believe.

Even without sharing the same belief system, one can't help but feeling moved by the screenplay and the scenography. The ideas behind it, dealing with religious belief and mental health, feel very original and it's overall acted really well.