Though our suspicions of his amorousness toward Chloe are confirmed by an awkward moment where, after much platonic friendly time together, he asks her out on a date, and she shuts him down. Toshi, who wears baggy clothes and appears disheveled and a little lost through most of the movie, doesn’t really get much of a shot at character development either. There’s a bit of a will-they-or-won’t-they air hanging around them, though Gray’s muted and mostly meandering screenplay does little to build off that suspense. Awash in memories of her late husband and their trips exploring the wild terrain of Iceland, photographer Chloe is welcomed in Japan by her old friend Toshi (Takashi Ueno), whom she appears to have a nervous but well-worn-into affection for. Despite Juri’s commitment, however, the world Rust has built around her (vividly conjuring the magic of on-location Japan) blunts the performance and ultimately leaves just a gossamer, alienating impression.īut how beautiful that scenic backdrop is. Adrift after the death of her husband, she finds herself in Japan on business, wandering an unfamiliar landscape that also emerges as a backdrop to her mourning. Swiss actress Carla Juri showed us how far she could push us in the ick-factor department with 2013’s squirmy and riotously distasteful coming-of-age sex comedy “Wetlands.” In “The Exploding Girl” and “Jack and Diane” director Bradley Rust Gray’s gently plaintive soul-searching odyssey “Blood,” his latest low-key, melancholy outing, Juri shows more restraint but packs no less punch as a widow named Chloe.
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