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Serendipity often plays a huge part in some of the greatest documentaries ever made. Like Errol Morris with THE THIN BLUE LINE or Ross McElwee with SHERMAN’S MARCH, filmmakers Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman had their cameras ready when a story presented itself. They began filming before they really knew what they had. When they started there is no way they could have imagined how crazy the journey to the end would be.

Ariel’s brother Nev is a professional photographer. He often shoots dancers. After one of his pictures appeared in the newspaper, he received a painting of the photograph from Abby, an eight year old living in Michigan. The paintings show talent. Over time he develops a pen pal relationship with the young girl. Her mother Angela says that her daughter’s paintings have sold for upwards of $7,000. Nev becomes friends with them on Facebook and starts chatting up Abby’s older sister Megan, a singer and wannabe model. They talk on the phone and Nev certainly is falling for the pretty girl. His brother and Joost thought they were filming a story of how technology affects modern romance. They got that and so much more.
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Due to its subject matter, this film should be called sci-fi. But its tone is far closer to a somber period piece. Mark Romanek, whose only other feature film was the sad thriller ONE HOUR PHOTO, has kept the same straightforward tone of the book from Kazuo Ishiguro, whose novel REMAINS OF THE DAY was adapted into a somber film as well. Romanek never sensationalizes the material into some kind of conspiracy thriller. He asks one philosophical question and spends the film answering that question in an emotionally powerful way.

Kathy (Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION), Tommy (Andrew Garfield, RED RIDING TRILOGY) and Ruth (Keira Knightley, PRIDE & PREJUDICE) have grown up together at the highly controlled boarding school Hailsham. The headmistress Miss Emily (Charlotte Rampling, SWIMMING POOL) does not stand for anyone breaking the rules. The children were told stories that if they left the grounds even for a second they might be savagely murdered. They wear wristbands to make sure they are all accounted for. The new teacher Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins, HAPPY-GO-LUCKY) begins to question the morality of how the children are being treated, but her views are seen as subversion.
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