Ultrasound begins on a cold, rainy night, where a man named Glen (Vincent Kartheiser) is forced to abandon his car and seek shelter in a nearby house. He’s greeted by Arthur (Bob Stephenson) and his wife Cyndi (Chelsea Lopez). While Art is welcoming, even overwhelmingly so, Cyndi is a little more reserved. She opens up to Glen a bit more when Art isn’t in the room, and the two seem to have spark and chemistry.
However, everything feels a little off – why is there a food tray outside in the rain, and why is Art so eager to have a stranger spend the night at his house? No one is that hospitable without a hidden agenda. This is the message Ultrasound wants to telegraph to us: nothing is what it seems, so it’s up to us to discern illusion from reality.
We move to other plotlines, following a pregnant woman who doesn’t seem to know that she’s pregnant, as well as Shannon (Dana Lyn Baron), a woman who works at a research facility. It all feels a bit confusing, since the narrative jumps between these various plotlines with no context, which leaves viewers with the task of trying to work out how the three relate to one another, yet never quite figuring it out until the revelations occur.
This requires a fair bit of patience, since it’s only halfway into the movie that we find out what the research facility is doing, and the role Art plays in all of this. Having said that, even at this point of knowing, the film still manages to throw in a couple more twists, which made the experience quite a fun ride, though some may feel it becomes a tad excessive since we spend most of the film being hoodwinked to death.
Films that have employed a similar shtick are James Mangold’s Identity and the more recent I’m Thinking of Ending Things directed by Charlie Kaufman. We’re given a few plotlines, and as each film wears on, we are meant to find a connection between these seemingly disparate situations. While interesting, and fairly satisfying when we do figure out how they converge, Ultrasound depends a little too much on this, keeping the viewer on board because we are waiting for a clever pay-off. However, on their own, these characters aren’t very memorable or exciting to watch.
We spend the most time with Glen and Cyndi, but the two are tortured the most mentally, almost to the point where there isn’t much personality left. Art plays the role of the consummate salesman, and doesn’t have much characterisation beyond that. Shannon is perhaps the most interesting one, since she took the job to help others, and finds herself in a conundrum – should she shut her eyes to the company’s shady dealings because the research is important, or stick to her morals regardless of the fallout? Besides her, we aren’t connected enough to the other characters to root for them in any way.
The visuals are competent enough, with the research facility taking on a distinctly horror-esque vibe – the usual blue and red lighting, flickering lights, and a winding facility so deeply constructed that it’s so easy to get lost and never be able to find your way out.
Ultrasound is certainly something viewers would enjoy more upon rewatch, to go back and see the details that they missed in trying to put the pieces together. Definitely a solid first outing for director Rob Schroeder, who delivers quite a compelling sci-fi tale, and will surely be one of the few stand-outs at the Tribeca film festival.
Review screener provided.
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