Jennifer Connelly, Cillian Murphy and Mélanie Laurent are the lovely leads in Claudia Llosa’s attractive but earthbound “Aloft,” a nutty, planet-girdling, time-trampling romance of an abandoned son’s search for a lost, faith-healing mother. The beauty of these three is matched by the settings and cinematography, to little lasting impact. New Age niceties are strewn about the landscape, and lovely images clash to pretentious, oft-elliptical affect. Vast expanses of frost illuminate the script’s cold heart. Magical realism? No, just an evanescing dream recounted fitfully. 117m. (Ray Pride)
“Aloft” opens June 5 at Landmark Century.
Ray Pride is Newcity’s film critic and a contributing editor to Filmmaker magazine.
His multimedia history of Chicago “Ghost Signs” will be published later this year.
Previews of that project on Twitter (twitter.com/chighostsigns) as well as photography on Instagram: instagram.com/raypride.
Twitter: twitter.com/RayPride
