Review of Uncertainty (2009) by Walter M — 15 Nov 2009

Friday night, I was in Brooklyn. Yesterday, I was in Manhattan.

"Uncertainty" starts at the Brooklyn Bridge as Bobby(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Kate(Lynn Collins) are at a crossroads in their relationship and cannot even decide how to spend the July 4th holiday. So, they flip a coin...

Kate runs to Manhattan and is met by Bobby in a yellow cab where he finds a cell phone. Wanting to do the right thing, he calls numbers, trying to locate the owner. Eventually, he has success of sorts but they instead witness a murder, just before he has a chance to hand off the phone.

Bobby runs to Brooklyn where he meets Kate driving a green car. Along the way to a picnic at Kate's family home for their extended family and friends, they rescue a stray dog before she gets hit by a car.

Written, directed and produced by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, the thought-provoking "Uncertainty" owes a debt to Tom Tykwer's "Winter Sleepers" and "Run Lola Run" with its color coded philosophical thrills. Yellow is caution and danger, while green is go, safe and home.(Correct me if I'm wrong but Kate and Bobby even keep exclusively to the Broadway line in Manhattan. Good thing they don't have to go further north than 60th Street.) What's important is how well the halves complement each other, even while raising more questions than the movie answers. The Brooklyn section fills in the personal history for the couple, so the viewer cares about what happens to them in the Manhattan section while utilizing New York City to its best advantage. However, its themes concerning choices and how they affect not only our own lives are universal, as is its examination of the responsibilities of altruism. In being so kind, Kate and Bobby make a statement against the stereotype of the uncaring New Yorker, even if Bobby is from Calgary.

But why did the lead character have to be named Bobby Thompson? And the only George Perez I've heard about is the comic book artist.