Linoleum Review: A Delicate, Quietly Moving Scifi Adventure

There is more to linoleum than meets the eye. Writer-director Colin West's new film initially looks like a fairly standard, even cheesy, sci-fi comedy-drama. The surrealism of the film's opening moments, including a scene in which a red variable is seen falling from the sky, helps give Linoleum a sense of euphoria by Michel Gondry. What is less clear at first is that those periods were more than a stylistic development in the West.

If it was, it wouldn't be much of a problem. For most of its 101-minute running time, Linoleum tells us of quiet misery and harrowing ups and downs so effectively that it's easy to imagine a world where it stays true to the dimensions of the original plot. But the film is not only difficult to imagine, but also repeatedly reveals the layers of the hidden history of linoleum .

The same layers are hidden in the linoleum protagonist Cameron Edwin (Jim Gaffigan), host of the local children's science fair, whose dream of becoming an astronaut has not come true. As Linoleum opens, Cameron's marriage to Erin ( Better Call Saul Ray Seahorn ), his former co-host, is about to fall apart. If that's not enough, he is inevitably replaced as host of his show by Kent Armstrong (also played by Gaffigan), a more successful scientist whose reputation as Cameron's student makes him all the more offensive.

Cameron's life seems to be turned upside down one night when a NASA rocket partially crashes in his backyard. Seeing the event as an opportunity to do something "fantastic" and finally fulfill his childhood dream, Cameron begins to restore the capsule in his garage with the goal of using it to fly to the moon. What he doesn't realize is that fixing it could destroy his relationship with Erin forever, or it could bring them back together.

Linoleum takes the time to tell Cameron and Erin what results await them. In the first 90 minutes, the film patiently builds the emotions of the story. Some candid conversations between colleagues and family members help establish the midlife crisis that has entered Erin and Cameron's lives. West, for his part, often cuts scenes from some of Cameron's Bill Nye public broadcasts, including some of the shows he and Sehorn's Erin hosted together, creating a soft, general sense of pity and anger.

West successfully reconciles Cameron and Erin's broken relationship with the various one-night stands their teenage daughter Nora (Kathleen Nacon) has with Kent's son Mark (Gabriel Rush). Like the rest of Linoleum, the scenes of Nora and Kent are woven together in a series of hazy, dreamlike images reminiscent of Gonder's memory scenes in The Pure Mind of the Eternal Sun.

West's decision to stage these scenes this way not only imbues Nora and Mark's moments with pure, nostalgic romance, but also makes Linoleum feel as memorable as it is a stunning sci-fi adventure. However, the sometimes disjointed style and overall texture of linoleum doesn't always work as West intended. There are moments, especially in the first and second act of the film, that are very unexpected and take you out of the story.

The film doesn't linger long on these moments, making it easy to ignore many of Linoleum's inexplicable magical realities. For the most part, West eventually manages to assert the unusual tone and structure of Linoleum , even if he never says so in the film's narration as one might expect. A puppet of a narrative drama ends up feeling too big and ambitious for the West. Fortunately, the writer-director's obvious love for the film's story keeps its difficult nature from going completely wrong.

Generally, each member of the film's cast rises to match the tone and style of the light linoleum . Gaffigan gives a wonderful performance in his dual portrayal of Cameron, the idealistic dreamer, and Kent, the father and strict military scientist. Opposite him, Sehorn delivers a nuanced and lively performance as Erin, a woman still unsure of where her life is headed. Together, the two artists helped West create a picture of a relationship full of love and regret.

After spending most of the working hours creating a simple solution to Erin and Cameron's problems, West takes Linoleum into more subtle and emotional territory. The work of Gaffigan, Seahorn, Nacon and Rush comes to fruition in the final minutes of Linoleum , which attempts to blend the film's overall strange sense of nostalgia with the emotional themes presented by the cast. The result is as unexpected and emotional as it is a surprising and difficult climax, which helps elevate Linoleum above the many low-budget and unusual sci-fi films released every year.

The film, in other words, may not be as successful as some of the films that influenced it, but that doesn't stop Linoleum from reaching truly wonderful and deeply emotional heights.

Linoleum is now showing in theaters .