The Place Promised in Our Early Days

Hauntingly beautiful in its visual style, Place Promised nonetheless suffers from its plot, which is disjointed and surreal to the point of illucidity. Featuring bold jumps in time and context, this movie could easily be compressed by 30 minutes simply by taking out long monologues – but it would be better if they had been replaced by an explanation of the tower featured so prominently throughout. The science of the movie defies its own pseudoquantum treknobabble; how exactly was a structure so large that it can be seen from what is at least 250 miles away built? Set in an alternative history/future of Japan; the political nature of the world could also have used a bit more fleshing out.