The sky is falling on Cameron Edwin (Jim Gaffigan) right from the start of “Linoleum,” reluctant to sign the divorce papers that he and his wife Erin (Rhea Seehorn) quietly agreed on a few months back and losing out on the time slot for the science TV show they once hosted together that he really wanted, instead being relegated to the midnight hour when none of its target audience of kids are likely to watch, though his teenage daughter Nora (Katelyn Nacon) still does. Still sending in applications to NASA with hopes that someone will respond, he’s reached his fifties unable to see what accomplishments he does have and has become fixated on what he hasn’t been able to do when quite literally a shiny red Corvette comes crashing to the ground from the heavens, all but cementing his general feelings towards the world.
At times, it might seem like writer/director Colin West has bitten off more he can chew in his ambitious second feature, which comes to include Gaffigan playing a dual role as both Cameron and Kent Armstrong, the man he finds in the wrecked Corvette who seems to have everything he doesn’t, but when time and space bend in mysterious ways, “Linoleum” feels true to life once it lands far more gracefully than the car at the center of its inciting incident. a feeling of ennui runs throughout as Cameron’s life falls apart, with his house off-limits once authorities rope it off following the crash and Erin giving him the cold shoulder as she wonders what her own future will look like without him and potentially a new job, but West enthusiastically invokes scientific theory to illuminate the pieces that are right in front of everyone to rebuild their life.
Fittingly, the film’s raison d’etre is quietly tucked into a pep talk Cameron gives to his daughter of how his own father divided the world into astronauts and astronomers, unaware this contrast will manifest itself in real life when Armstrong, the award-winning astrophysicist with space time logged, literally shows up in his backyard as he’s been merely tooling around in his shed with thoughts of making a rocket. Not only does West employ the idea that Cameron and Kent reflect what the other isn’t, as Nora and Kent’s son Marc (Gabriel Rush) get to know each other, quickly forming a bond after learning they were conspicuously born on the same day, other intrigue takes hold when the connection seems indicative of something even bigger, perhaps allowing for the discovery that Cameron’s been waiting a lifetime to make.
What makes “Linoleum” special is the ultimate notion there is more to gain from a personal epiphany than a professional breakthrough and in spite of the stellar production value across the board, particularly production designer Mollie Wartelle’s detailed creation of different emotional spheres, the film follows through on its own ideas formally as much as it does narratively as all its carefully constructed artifice falls away as if it’s the lies that we tell ourselves. Strong performances from the entire cast led by Gaffigan give the film its beating heart, and when paired with more abstract scientific concepts West explores, the eventual alignment of the mind and body is a mighty thing to behold.
“Linoleum” will screen at SXSW on March 13th at the Violet Crown Cinema 2 at 12:45 pm and the Violet Crown Cinema 4 at 1:15 pm and on March 17th at 6:30 pm at the ZACH Theatre. It will also be available virtually for SXSW Online badgeholders from March 13th-March 15th.