What Time Is It There?

After opening with a static, four-minute shot of a soon-to-be-dead old man sitting in a chair, this conceptual Taiwanese dramedy does pick up a bit--but there's an element of that cinematic passivity evident throughout the rest of the film. What Time Is It There? follows three stories: 1) the old man's forlorn widow obsessing over coaxing her husband's spirit to return to their home, 2) the old man's son compulsively resetting every clock in Taipei to Paris time in honor of a girl who moved there, and 3) the girl's trip to the City of Lights. Although daring and creative in his observational style, director Tsai Ming-Liang often lingers just as long on the irrelevant as he does on the engaging, which gradually turns What Time Is It There? into How Long Is This Movie? Optional. (R. Blackwelder)