“Should we go to another bar?” Aaron (Cooper Raiff) asks his sister Leah (Kaitlyn Dever) as they find themselves at a dead scene in “See You When I See You,” where the alcohol is hardly yielding any lively conversation. Leah, a wild creature you might expect to ditch the joint, but surprises her brother instead, as can be just as expected when she declares, “No, we need to change the bar,” cranking up some music before getting the whole place rocking. She truly is the life of the party, which makes her loss particularly devastating as Aaron recalls this memory, depriving him of not only a sister but the one who had a confidence that he did not and now has to face carrying on without her. The immediate joy that thought brings and the lingering sadness of knowing that’s gone now all associated with that moment is conjured quite vividly throughout the latest film from Jay Duplass, working from Adam Clayton-Holland’s adaptation of his own memoir “Tragedy Plus Time” about the shocking suicide of his sister.
Since it can be awkward to talk about grief, it can be somewhat apropos that “See You When I See You” can have similar issues at times, feeling as if it’s trying a little too hard when it adds fanciful touches to its flashbacks with Leah or overlooking a detail here or there that would make a leap to a conclusion a little smoother, but the tender and bittersweet comedy gets the feeling right throughout of the limbo it creates for those enlivened by memories of a loved one as burdened by them when they couldn’t previously fathom their despair. You can see how the Whistler family has been ripped apart while they’re all under the same roof when “See You When I See You” opens, divided into all different parts of the house. Aaron has to wonder when his other sister Emily (Lucy Boynton) is trying to coax fish swimming around the koi pond from out of their caves whether she’s talking to him, a fitting introduction to the family where no one seems to know if they’re in conversation with one another or not and parents Page (Hope Davis) and Robert (David Duchovny) seem intent on keeping an open line of communication, though everyone seems to talk around one another, not sharing what they’re going through, only compounding the difficulty of conversations they have with one another.
The invisible fissures that Duplass and Clayton-Holland are able to bring to the surface with a strong cast are rather remarkable, subtly expressing how mildly irksome it can be when people express condolences like “I don’t even know how you’re standing right now” that makes them conscious of what they’re carrying around and when privileging Aaron as its main character, how contending with grief can make someone feel as if they’re the center of the universe to the detriment of others around them whose own feelings can go ignored. The film takes that idea to an almost literal level when thoughts of Leah can lead Aaron to imagine a black hole opening up in the sky, a dip into special effects that Duplass doesn’t seem to be entirely comfortable with just yet, but the scenes between everyone on earth trying to keep their feet on the ground are right in his wheelhouse, as the discomfort around talking about Leah or how to move on can lead to as much humor as heartache.
The rakish charm Raiff showed off in his own directorial efforts “Shithouse” and “Cha Cha Real Smooth” is well-deployed here when Aaron knows it can excuse a ton of selfish behavior he’s prone to in the wake of Leah’s death, attempting to rekindle a relationship with Camila (Ariela Barer), a nurse he ghosted in the aftermath, and can distract from any meaningful engagement with a therapist, working through a couple before he ends up at the office of Dr. Anya (Poorna Jagannathan). It isn’t the film’s primary virtue when the film follows its lead character in bringing a good sense of humor to dealing with tragedy, but in a world of trigger warnings and suicide hotline numbers thrown up on the screen for so many films and TV shows, the process of even getting to the point of asking for help is impressively shown for how difficult it is. Ironically, it’s the hard stuff that the cast and crew of “See You When I See You” make look easy when it shows how people come to terms with loss in their own way on different timelines and the mix of contradictory feelings stirred up organically yields a touching, heartfelt dramedy.
“See You When I See You” screens again at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28th at 8:45 pm at the Ray Theatre, January 30th at 8:30 am at the Library Center Theatre, January 31st at 8:30 pm at the Rose Wagner Center in Salt Lake City and February 1st at 9 am at the Megaplex Redstone.