An academic named John 'Oldman' (clever stuff) about to leave town, gather his closest 'friends' to his cabin and tells them he's a 14,000 year old Cro-magnon man.
Nothing in the way of a cinematic experience here, it's staged more like a play around (mostly) one single location, it's focus is on a script aiming roughly in the direction of philosophy -- covering a bit of religion, human impact on environments and the 'goodness inside' -- and the 7 characters that debate their way around their friends' rather ludicrous spur-of-the-moment announcement.
While it's understandable each character takes such a different stance on John's story, it's also here that the story becomes so unstuck for me: even if you can ignore the occasionally ropey acting, the reactions to the various things John states during the evening are so unbelievable and extreme it's farcical.
And they play to stereotypes, Ellen Crawford's 'Edith', a character so spectacularly annoying even in the presence of the ever-delightful John Billingsley, is a devout Christian and is so easily upset she has to announce she can't listen anymore at several points.
It's a pity as there are some few tidbits of interesting points covered here, but not enough to even cover it's slim 87min running time and the way it's acted out is so distractingly irritating it's a wonder I finished it.
Nothing in the way of a cinematic experience here, it's staged more like a play around (mostly) one single location, it's focus is on a script aiming roughly in the direction of philosophy -- covering a bit of religion, human impact on environments and the 'goodness inside' -- and the 7 characters that debate their way around their friends' rather ludicrous spur-of-the-moment announcement.
While it's understandable each character takes such a different stance on John's story, it's also here that the story becomes so unstuck for me: even if you can ignore the occasionally ropey acting, the reactions to the various things John states during the evening are so unbelievable and extreme it's farcical.
And they play to stereotypes, Ellen Crawford's 'Edith', a character so spectacularly annoying even in the presence of the ever-delightful John Billingsley, is a devout Christian and is so easily upset she has to announce she can't listen anymore at several points.
It's a pity as there are some few tidbits of interesting points covered here, but not enough to even cover it's slim 87min running time and the way it's acted out is so distractingly irritating it's a wonder I finished it.