WHAT COMES AROUND (2023) - Mark Reviews Movies

What Comes Around, IFC Films

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Review by Mark Dujsik | August 3, 2023

Calling the morality of any creative endeavor into question is always tricky territory. The most obvious pitfall of doing so, of course, is that work's depiction of something does not mean an implicit endorsement of it. What Comes Around leaves one very much wondering if the movie does endorse a series of actions that occur within its plot, if only because the screenplay by Scott Organ seems to have such little concern for the consequences of those action and what they mean beyond the motives of one character.

To discuss the specifics of that character and those actions would be to give away too much of this story, which begins as an increasingly unsettling drama about a teenage girl who is "wooed" online by an older man. It's clear that Organ and director Amy Redford comprehend that this relationship is an issue, because so much of the early story is about how 28-year-old Eric (Kyle Gallner) coerces his way into the life of 16-going-on-17-year-old Anna (Grace Van Dien). The guy seems sincere, but isn't that the way of the most convincing manipulators?

Organ, adapting his own play, initially writes Eric with an uncomfortable level of precision, from his text messages to, to his video calls with, and to his first in-person with Anna. We can sense exactly what this man is doing, and poor, naïve Anna, who dreams of becoming a poet and finds an unexpected degree of support from this relative stranger online, doesn't seem to have any idea of what this guy is actually after from her.

To be kind to the character of Anna (something that the movie itself barely struggles to accomplish, especially by the off-putting ending), the full extent of what Eric wants with and from her is left a bit of a mystery for a long stretch of this story. The whole thing is about secrets, either misremembered or intentionally kept silent by at least two of the characters here, and how they gradually come to light over the course of what should be a happy period of time for both Anna and her mother Beth (Summer Phoenix). It's the eve of the girl's 17th birthday, and Beth, a single mother, has just accepted a marriage proposal from her boyfriend Tim (Jesse Garcia).

The string of complications begins when Eric decides to surprise Anna by showing up at her house unannounced on her birthday. Anna knows this is wrong and quite creepy at first, since she never told Eric where she lives at any point during their online, phone, and text conversations. Eric, though, knows how to talk his way around the obvious invasion of privacy and the boundaries of their relationship. Soon enough, he's hiding in her bedroom after the two have had sex, because her friends and family have arrived for her birthday celebration, but Anna wants him to stick around longer.

That's about where any fair discussion of the plot should end, because Organ's screenplay (very) slowly uncovers how and why Eric has found himself talking to Anna and showing up at her house. The guy has a terrible past, although the specific details are intentionally obscured by the fact that his account is quite different from someone else's. If we believe the other person, Eric is a potential threat beyond disturbing behavior he has already displayed in his relationship with Anna. If we believe Eric, he's the victim of a crime that has gone unresolved and unpunished for a decade, but does any of that change or justify anything about the methods he took to place himself in the middle of this family?

That's the question that Organ and Redford seem incapable of answering or unwilling to do so. Beyond the fact that the movie's obvious moral gap in addressing that subject in any way is a disturbing oversight, it just shows how little concern for or understanding of the characters surrounding Eric the script possesses. Unfortunately, it's impossible to describe how Beth is transformed into little more than a plot device without giving away too much of that plot, but it is easy enough to point out that Tim goes from being horrified in one scene to cheerfully discussing the menu for the engagement party in the next. The clunky dialogue, which either awkwardly talks around matters or suddenly has characters speaking frankly about them, doesn't help at all.

What Comes Around raises important issues, to be sure, but it does so primarily to toy with us for no other reason than to attempt to surprise and shock. By the end, it leaves one feeling manipulated and thoroughly troubled by the movie's thoughtless handling of trauma—especially the new ones this cheap plot creates.

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