Is our universe an infinite masterpiece of order and structure? Or is it merely a limitless amalgamation of randomness and chance? These are the questions posed and explored in the new sci-fi drama "Clara".
Writer and Director Akash Sherman has fashioned a most intriguing tale of science, distant space exploration, traumatic loss and unlikely romance. That's a lot of fertile, yet tricky, ground to cover in any story, and Sherman does so most adroitly here. Using equal parts special effects, human drama and deep existential issues, his film presents an embracing and genuinely thought-provoking chronicle of man and his place in the great cosmic unknown surrounding and dwarfing him.
If I have an issue with Sherman's film, it would be this: That what is apparently presented to us as one version of Heaven is, to put it both mildly and quite literally, way out there, man. Yet, as with all of the themes the filmmaker thoughtfully investigates in "Clara", whose to say, or know, that this version of The Afterlife may not be at least in the ballpark of actuality? Certainly not we of mortal man and woman status, and this is for DAMN sure.
Patrick J. Adams (TV's "Suits") and real-life spouse Troian Bellisario (The tube's "Pretty Little Liars") are excellent individually and in tandem as two shattered souls who come together to make a spectacular discovery. Was it the data-driven product of complex analysis and precise calculations? Or could it all have come to pass as simply an accident of luck, happenstance, and, perhaps, even love?
This is the ultimate quandary presented in "Clara". The grand answer may lie embedded in the lyrics of Bob Dylan, whom Sherman prominently features, when the iconic musician suggests it..."is blowin' in the wind."
It's as good a place to start as any.
