Magic Hour Review: A Road Map of Grief, Honest, Thoughtful, and Feels Incomplete

This being a Duplass Brothers production, you know going in that the SXSW entry, Magic Hour, will most likely be funny, sobering, and brutally honest to a fault. So much so, in fact, that the experience can become painful. Yet, above all else, like Blue Jay, Paddleton, and The Puffy Chair, the film makes you feel something, anything, good or bad.

However, never somewhere in between. Which is, rather, the point of Magic Hour, a film that is refreshingly honest about relationships when communication breaks down and second chances are hard to come by. Whether silence has already cracked the foundation. Or, because there is so much to say, but we are only brave enough when it is too late.

What is Magic Hour about?

Yet, director Katie Aselton, who co-wrote the script with partner Mark Duplass, knows, well, the real “magic” in Magic Hour: nearly all relationships have their bumps, twists, and turns, and the film is never afraid to embrace them instead of burying them. While the movie runs out of ideas by its third act, the experience is one you will not soon forget.

The story follows Erin (The Morning Show’s Katie Aselton) and Charlie (The Boys alum Daveed Diggs), a couple whose relationship is running out of steam. For Charlie, the trip is a reset. A chance at reconnection, to work through issues breaking their connection. For Erin, however, this is more of a last-ditch effort that will make or break them.

The movie is reflective, with Aselton’s Erin showing the most three-dimensional qualities, looking at herself through the lens of grief. Which is normal, you can see her effortlessly as she examines loneliness, confusion, anger, anxiety, regret, guilt, and yearning for a connection that was once there. Aselton’s performance is a sight to behold.

Magic Hour Review

Which is an actor’s dream, and exactly what can happen when you write your own script. Daveed Diggs, in his best performance since his blistering turn in Blindspotting, is viewed through a lens of nostalgic sanctification. Disarming, winsome, and even endearing, Diggs sets a tone that mellows the emotional roller coaster Katie Aselton continues to explore.

We are trying very hard not to spoil the film, which takes a massive swing early on. However, Aselton spends so much time exploring her own character’s emotions, backstory, and roadmap to the other side that the third act has issues: it either wants to complete its character study or focus on a minor narrative subplot.

The third act is filled with what amounts to independent-film filler that proudly puffs out its chest, desperate to be different. Yet, other scenes, especially in light of the first-act reveal, hit with such raw power and emotion that the viewer is left wondering if the script will not take a few necessary steps to let the rose-colored-glasses lens fade.

Is Magic Hour worth watching?

If only for a moment or two, considering the direction the film could have explored. However, Katie Aselton instead allows the cinematography to explore the haunting duskiness of grief, where things are left unsaid. Which is strange for a film that has so much to say through its first forty or so minutes.

I imagine this is where most viewers will lose interest in Magic Hour, even though the film remains worth watching. The eclectic needle drops and the constant shifts between real life and Katie’s own creative thoughts serve as examples of rumination, defense mechanisms the brain uses to protect itself through depression.

Director Katie Aselton has crafted a film that is honest and thoughtful, yet a road map of grief that somehow feels incomplete, which is rather the point.

You can watch Magic Hour only in theaters starting May 15th!

Magic Hour Review: A Road Map of Grief, Honest, Thoughtful, and Feels Incomplete