The feature debut of actress-turned-director Livia de Paolis (who co-wrote the script with Sarah Nerboso) is a slight but likable relationship drama that would seem to be the staple of indie-film-festival rosters, often lost in the tramplings of blockbusters and more formula fare.
De Paolis plays Elena, a 33-year-old graduate student from South America, in New York City for an Anthropology project on social media connections. She also cultivates a love affair with the scholarly Walter (Michael Cristofer), twice her age. Walter and his ex-wife had adopted two adolescent children from diverse backgrounds, now teenagers. Luke (Miles Chandler) is a mellow skateboarder who accepts Elena as an aunt-like figure while he embarks on his first courtship with a peer. Amanda (Diane Guerrero) is moodier and maintains an impossible fantasy of traveling with her career-driven adoptive mother (Christine Ebersole). Eventually, she warms up to Elena. Ironically, however, as these characters work out their issues over cell phones and electronic gadgets, the relationship with Walter starts losing its spark.
There is a nice mix of newcomer performers and familiar faces, and Carole Kane portrays a faculty advisor who complains Elena's Ph.D. thesis lacks focus and direction. Viewers may tend to think the same of the plot, whose strands have the tentative and untidy qualities of real life, but wrap up in a succinct, no-padding narrative intelligently written and performed (iconic actress Sonia Braga does get a terribly caricatured cameo, though).
It may or may not be a missed opportunity that de Paolis avoids excesses of trendy filmmaker gimmickry (webcam POVs, superimpositions, split screens, animation, etc.) that typically scream "cyber" in such material, going instead for a mostly traditional mise-en-scene.
The multicultural angles and female focus are both pluses for independent film collections. A strong optional purchase for public libraries.