Between Worlds, written, directed, and produced by Maria Pulera, follows Joe (Nicolas Cage), a truck driver who comes across Julie (Franka Potente), a woman who can leave her body when she is in near-death situations. When Joe meets Julie, she is being choked by a man in a gas station, and he steps in to save her, but instead he stops Julie’s attempt to save her daughter who is dying after a motorcycle accident.
Joe decides to take Julie to the hospital, so she can save her daughter, with the help of Joe choking her. Instead of letting her daughter Billie’s spirit through, the spirit of Joe’s dead wife Mary comes through, taking over the teenager’s body.
Between Worlds sets its plot up fairly quickly, while also naturally introducing its characters. Where Between Worlds falls apart is once the plot is established, the film does not do as much as it could with the scenarios. Once it is revealed that Mary’s spirit is in Billie’s body, Joe believes it so easily, and jumps right into sleeping with her while reading sections of a book called Memories written by Nicolas Cage.
The lack of tension in this feel feels out of place, especially with a plot focused on a man sleeping with a woman as well as her daughter, as the host for his dead wife’s spirit. Between Worlds lacks in conflict and real conversations between its characters. For a film which focuses so much of its energy on creating memorable and over-the-top situations, the decision to not follow these threads to their tense ends feels unnatural.
Spirits inhabiting other bodies is a well known film trope in horror, and I did enjoy the way this film wanted to explore this in a more paranormal romance way, but the love triangle aspect should have provided more drama and tension between the characters.
Between Worlds works well in the moments where the actors are given more to work with in a scene. Penelope Mitchell stands out in her performance as Billie when the spirit of Mary starts to come through more in her actions. I especially enjoyed the moments where Billie watched Julie and Joe’s budding relationship. The dissonance between Billie as a serious onlooker and Julie and Joe laughing for an extended period of time works well to capture a more surreal and interesting tone to the film. Moments like this worked to bring the film in a different, and more interesting direction aesthetically.
Nicolas Cage’s performance helps the earlier scenes of the film capture a tone that connects with the rest of the film. If his performance did not bring out the tone of the film, there would be an unwanted disconnect between the establishing scenes and the body of the film. His performance establishes the personality and inflections of Joe early on through his early moments with Julie.
As the film goes along, we are shown more of Billie’s friend Mike (Garrett Clayton) after his friend is shot by Joe, and he goes to Julie for help. This combination of characters should have been explored more. The film picked up a little when these characters came together to work against Joe, who is now following Mary’s advice, until another twist comes, pulling him away from her.
Garrett Clayton gave a good performance in his more limited screen time. I especially enjoyed Mike having to adjust to seeing Billie, a girl he has known and cared for, being involved in the death of his friend. Between Worlds would have been more engaging if this relationship had been explored more, especially in its connection with Mary’s spirit in Billie’s body.
Between Worlds had moments where its visual style stood out, and was an interesting extension of the story, but the film also had times where the visuals felt flat and ordinary. The color scheme is muted through the film, and this sometimes works, but in other moments, this visual style felt like it did not fit the film.
The color scheme works for the film, but in its more surreal moments, the muted color scheme evokes too much of a realistic style that works in its moments between Julie, Joe, and Billie, within the house. In these moments, the colors evoked the home life of these characters well, but the colors should have shifted more in its moments focused less on capturing the realistic aspects of the film.
Some moments felt like the film wanted to come across surreal in its visuals and sound, but too much of the visuals felt ordinary and uninspired. The moments where the film does become more surreal feel more natural for the film. The lighting in some moments helps push the surreal aspects of the film, but this type of moment does not happen often enough to establish a surreal style for the film overall.
I particularly enjoyed the moments where the film felt more surreal and less focused on reality. One moment that stands out is when Joe reads from a book that says it was written by Nicolas Cage. This moment feels strange in a way that sets the film apart. Even without knowing what exactly this means for the universe of the film, I felt drawn in by this odd detail and the lighting of this moment between Joe and Mary in Billie’s body.
Between Worlds has potential in its more surreal moments, but it never utilizes the tension and conflict that could come from this story. The performances help establish the surreal and interesting world of the film, but overall, Between Worlds feels like wasted potential. The film does make me interested in seeing what else Maria Pulera does in her career.
Are you interested in seeing Between Worlds? Will you check out more films written, directed, and produced by Maria Pulera? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
Between Worlds will be released on December 21, 2018 in the US. For all international release dates, see here.
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