APORIA

 

Jeri Jacquin

Coming to theatres from writer/director Jared Moshe and Well Go USA Entertainment is the thriller with APORIA.

Sophie (Judy Greer) is a woman dealing with the grief at the loss of husband, Mal (Edi Gathegi). Also trying to deal with the pain is Sophie’s daughter Riley (Faithe Herman) and it has caused emotional detachment between them.

Trying to hold down a job and take care of Riley, Sophie has the help of Mal’s good friend physicist Jabir (Payman Maadi). Seeing that the grief of Mal’s death is too much, Jabir shows Sophie something spectacular, a time bending machine.

Telling her that it could be possible to change the day Mal died by a drunk driver, Sophie, at first declines to get involved. But when seeing the man who killed her husband, Sophie decides to see if it would work.

Mal’s return brings a dilemma to Sophie and Jabir in how to continue using the machine. Their lives are now vastly different and with every use of the machine, the danger of the changes grows. That’s when these three people realize that someone has to set things right.

Greer as Sophie portrays a grieving widow who is trying to keep her life together. The struggles with her job and a daughter who clearly wants nothing to do with the life before her father’s death. The wonderful thing about Greer is that she can do comedy and drama with equal measure and success. As Sophie, Greer develops her character from grief to conscience with the hope of a successful ending.

Maadi as Jabir is a man on a mission. Using a room in his house to create the time bending machine, he clearly believes it can work and help Sophie and Riley have some happiness back in their lives. Maadi becomes the middle man between Sophie and Mal but also realizes that perhaps the world isn’t ready for his machine. I enjoy Maadi as a solid character actor and this is the reason why.

Gathegi as Mal is a man who is, at first, rightly confused about what has happened in his life and death. Once he grasps what has happened, the wondering of what good could this machine do for bringing justice in some ways. I first saw Gathegi in the 2014 series JUSTIFIED and up to the 2022 series FOR ALL MANKIND. Gathegi has a presence that draws the audience in and wants to know more about the character he plays. Well done!

Herman as Riley has become withdrawn, standoffish and emotionally unpredictable since her father’s death. Taking it out on the only person she can, Riley leans hard on her mother and also acts out at school. Herman does the teenager like a teenager would be in the strange situation Riley finds herself.

Other cast include Rachel Paulson as May, Lisa Linke as Nurse Cohen, Adam O’Bryne as Darby, Whitney Cox as Kara, Veda Cienfuegos as Aggie, Dionne Audain as Hagerty, Mann Alfonso as Mr. Abante, Coel Mahal as Mary-Lou, Grace Hinson as VP Bae and Jeffrey Sun as Prosecutor Macias.

Well Go USA Entertainment is a theatrical and home entertainment company specializing in bringing the best Action, Genre and Independent films from around the world to North American markets. As a leader in independent film distribution, Well Go USA Entertainment’s titles can be seen across a variety of platforms including theatrical, digital, subscription and cable VOD, packaged media and broadcast television. Well Go USA Entertainment currently releases three to five films per month. To see more please visit www.wellgousa.com.

APORIA is a look at a family torn apart by grief and given the chance to try and correct what they feel is a wrong is dangerous. A put together machine is about to change Sophie and Riley’s lives and it won’t be a simple change either.

As a physicist, Jabir should know you cannot change the present by going back to the past, yet he shares his time bending machine with Sophie. Correcting what people believe are events that are wrong is still no answer yet, the shared grief between Sophie and Jabir pushes them forward thinking ‘oh nothing bad will happen to do this ONE thing’.

The consequences of their actions is what grips APORIA to its core and kept me watching. As we all know, making a mess it easy – it’s the clean up that can be a hot mess. This film is proof that perhaps its better not to make the mess in the first place.

In the end – reality is a continuum!