The film, to me, seemed unsure if it wanted to be an absurdist comedy (like, as others have mentioned, films like Airplane) or it wanted to be a sort of surrealistic drama (like a poorly-rendered, weak watercolor version of a Lynch film). It tended to hover somewhere in between. There were definitely some half-smirk laughs, but I can't say it ever was fully realized as a comedy. The subject matter alone made the comedy concept a little bit wince-worthy. Someone mentioned how funny it was when they used age-progression software to age the missing child 4 days, but when the detective used the same software to age him into old age and then death and then decay, it was decidedly (and seemingly intentionally) unfunny. The reaction on the officer's face made me think I was missing some critical element that I couldn't grasp. Was it a revelation that he believed the child was dead? Was it fear of his own mortality? Had the child remanifested as someone else who should have been familiar? Did it mean nothing? There were other scenes that made me feel there was supposed to be some great meaning or purpose but either the filmmakers failed to convey them, I was too stupid to see them, or they never really existed. The film continued beyond its natural ending and by the time the credits rolled I could only say "Wait...what?"
Mostly I feel like I should have liked this more than I did. Or I wanted to like it more. Or something. Because there is almost something here, or maybe I imagined it. I give it five stars for the quality of some of the scenes, the acting, and my desperate belief that there was more there than met the eye.
