Next Exit

18

I’m not sure this really qualifies as sci-fi, honestly. Since, you know, it’s really more about ghosts than it is about the scientific function that lets people see them. Or maybe it’s not. It’s really a romantic drama road film. With some themes of the afterlife and what that means for all of us. But also a lot of suicide talk, some light comedy and a whole lot of driving and stopping along the way. This is both a high and low-concept film. Because the discovery that the afterlife is real — aka ghosts exist — drives otherwise unsatisfied human beings to hope that if given another chance at life — even if it’s as a ghost — that they’ll do right by the people they’ve harmed and themselves. Luckily there’s now a company that will set that all up for you gratis if you qualify for their afterlife study. But what if — and just go with me here — we take two such people, shove them in a small car on a cross-country trip and make them come to terms with their regrets as they transverse the nation?

Even before we get into this NYC to San Francisco road trip, we’re faced with the philosophical question of what it would mean to the human race if the afterlife was a proven fact. There’s a bit of throat-clearing and wheel spinning at the start of the film trying to lay that out. Though it’s a little clumsy and doesn’t hit the way the filmmaker, Mali Elfman, thinks it does. Or should. But the gist is that life-threatening crimes are no longer a thing because people aren’t afraid to die. And suicides are way up. Because I guess if you remove the barrier of death being the end of things, it somehow makes it okay to die? I don’t know, I’m not sold. Being a ghost — even on the really thin and somewhat suspect evidence provided by this Dr. Stevenson (Karen Gillan) person that they actually exist — doesn’t seem even remotely as cool as being an alive person. First, there is no perspective from the ghost’s POV. The afterlife could be a burning hellscape, or a lonely blackness. On the living side, only a minute number of people seem to be able to see a similarly small number of their dead loved ones. It’s all pretty sketchy and unproven. But, perhaps that’s the point? Desperate people who are already so dissatisfied with their living life just want to believe that if they die that they’ll live on. So they are, in a way, just fooling themselves into believing and removing whatever guilt, fear or whatever else goes through peoples’ heads before taking their own lives. Whatever the case, it’s never made particularly clear why being a dead person is better in any way than being a living person. So, the fear of dying should still be present.

Anyhow, there are two sad New Yorkers, Teddy (Rahul Kohli) and Rose (Katie Parker), who have been chosen for Dr. Stevenson’s program in San Francisco. The details are a little vague, but essentially she’s offering them a painless death at her Life Beyond Institute as part of her research into the afterlife. They will be a small number of pioneers who will be tracked in their afterlife life to help shed light on exactly what does happen on the other side. Doesn’t sound at all like quackery, right? Well, they signed up, got chosen and have sold all their stuff and decided for some reason to drive cross country instead of flying. But, in the best Planes, Trains & Automobiles tradition, they are forced to rent a single car and share the cross-country trip together. He’s an enthusiastic, friendly John Candy type. She’s a cranky, cantankerous Steve Martin proxy. And, honestly, this setup is pretty much the same. Rose just wants to get to San Francisco and get it done and eschews Teddy’s attempts to chat or interact at all. Seeing him as more of a nuisance than anything else. And he just wants to talk about what they’re heading for and get personal info out of Rose. Same same.

But, as time goes by, and we see that Teddy isn’t all smiles and banter and is obviously harboring some of his own serious pain (he’s volunteering to die, after all), he finally breaks down Rose’s defenses and they get into it. But, unlike Candy and Martin, they are less freaked out when they discover those aren’t pillows! If you know what I’m saying. Along the way they go through a little A Christmas Carol gauntlet where they meet several people who give them different rather heavy-handed perspectives on living life and their goals before they die, each reacting differently to the shared experiences. As the road trip continues and the two grow closer, we’re kind of led to believe that perhaps they will change course when they reach the Institute. But, hell no, Rose is one stubborn person! Thing is, we are let into why they both want to die, and, honestly, their tales are kind of weak. Teddy’s dad took off on him and his mom when he was young. And a business he had ended up failing. Rose clearly has a drinking problem and did something unforgivable to her sister. They must have written really good cover letters to Dr. Stevenson to get chosen for this study, because neither one of them have particularly compelling stories for redemption or whatever the criteria is to get picked for this exclusive role.

But yeah, the road trip isn’t honestly that interesting. A good deal of it is spent watching Rose be a jerk and Teddy try to convince her not to be. Until he does. And, boy, does he! The exploration of their past mistakes and how to fix them is super-clunky as well. You can see Elfman putting the Post-Its on the wall to plot the thing out. Like she must hit these ten points and just fill in the rest with road film and either banter or absolutely no banter. There are a few moments of levity that actually give us some insight into the characters, but it’s otherwise a pretty pedestrian version of the tried-and-true road film. I get that she was trying to explore the existential questions about what “making a difference” is, as Teddy is constantly saying he wants to do that by volunteering for this study, but that generic statement just doesn’t tell us enough about him or about the deeper meaning of ending one’s life or living a life that’s worthy. It just doesn’t get there in any emotional way that is effective. Parker and Kohli are decent in the roles — though Kohli’s energy is a much more enjoyable watch, and his comic timing is a welcome respite as compared to Parker’s more dour crank — but even their acting and chemistry can’t help completely save a rather vanilla, surface-level script. There’s also some jankiness in the directing at the very end of the film that feels like perhaps the editor either didn’t quite know how to splice things together or Elfman couldn’t quite get the action to feel as compelling as it should be. It’s a very important scene, as Rose is making her “final” decision, so the miss feels especially disappointing in what is otherwise a relatively promising directorial debut for Danny Elfman’s daughter. Yeah, I didn’t realize it either.