‘Gazer’ Review: A Unexpectedly Twisty, Atmospheric Slow Burn

Within the first few minutes of “Gazer,” it’s easy to tell that a woman named Frankie (Ariella Mastroianni) is struggling. Our heroine, it would seem, has been living with a disorder of some sort, one that requires her to go about her day with a cassette tape player spouting commands into her ear throughout; these words, however, aren’t of the motivational variety or her favorite podcast. As she works a menial gas station job, the tape’s verbiage seems to narrate what she should be doing at that moment, seemingly a means to keep her grounded for reasons as yet unknown. Her hobby of choice? Watching others going about their day/night…you might say she’s gazing. Still interested in what’s to come?

A trip to her doctor is on her agenda, and the news isn’t ideal. There doesn’t appear to be any hope in terms of recovery from her illness, which has only worsened; it’s soon back to the sparse apartment where she lives alone, a vast collection of self-made tapes occupying space within her residence, several of which featuring her daughter, Cynthia, in what might be a document of time spent together previously. It could be recently or years ago, but it’s soon made clear that a handful of these tapes act as a diary of sorts. At the same time, her condition reveals itself as dyschronometria, a condition described as an inability to understand time, such as how much has passed and one’s overall perception of the concept. Manifesting throughout “Gazer” as chunks of missing time while also seemingly providing Frankie with a distressing series of nightmares featuring a dead body, a help group she’s been attending for those having suffered a loss may be precisely what this woman needs. Here, she meets Paige (Renee Gagner), someone she saw several nights prior who was involved in an altercation within Paige’s apartment and, shortly after, fleeing the scene before Frankie’s eyes. Encountering one another at the same group meetings casts suspicion in the direction of Frankie, with the woman having been caught in her gazing act by Paige.

Still, it’s nothing a trip to the diner can’t fix, as the two bond over a cannoli; Frankie’s request of the waiter to see if the restaurant is hiring prompts Paige to inquire as to Frankie’s finances, with a request now coming from Paige that could very well be the windfall Frankie can provide to her daughter. Oh, didn’t I mention her daughter’s been in the care of her mother-in-law, Diane (Marianne Goodell)? Maybe the $3,000 payout Paige has promised Frankie will be just what she needs; however, with Diane harboring unshakeable feelings that Frankie was directly responsible for her son/Frankie’s husband Roger’s (Grant Schumacher) death, getting the money may be the easier of the tasks.

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This money, naturally, won’t come easy. Paige needs Frankie to break into her former apartment and retrieve the keys to Paige’s car, avoiding Paige’s brother Henry (Jack Alberts) in the process; Henry, by the way, was the one apparently responsible for Paige’s scuffle and the vague instructions Paige leaves Frankie as to what needs to happen with the vehicle couldn’t sound any less suspicious, as Frankie is to drive to a remote location, leave the car and, presumably, meet with Paige to settle up. Unsurprisingly, Paige fails to materialize, having apparently left town without a trace, and it’s here that things truly begin to pick up speed. Frankie’s role in Roger’s death, a possible stolen identity, something of a conspiracy involving a pharmaceutical manufacturer, and Frankie’s increasingly worrisome “Vanilla Sky”-esque hallucinations only scratch the surface of what was up until now a somewhat atmospheric look at a woman drifting through a specific stage in her life as she copes with something entirely out of her control.

Yet, where exactly is “Gazer” heading? That unknown is the payoff, with some well-placed twists in the second half, all of which serve to set up a very different film than what came before. As Frankie, Mastroianni carries the film, and what could be considered an emotionless expression she wears nonstop carries far more than one realizes as the events unfold and whatever exists in Frankie’s life starts to unravel. The sparse jazz score oddly works as well, as does the brief dalliance into David Cronenberg around the film’s midpoint; it seems there’s something here for everyone, though these rewards take some time to arrive. 

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Directed by Ryan Sloan and co-written by him and Mastroianni, the question of what “Gazer” is attempting to say seems as unclear as Frankie’s journey; this could be a story of a woman doing whatever she can to provide for her child or the effect of losing a loved one and how such an event serves to permeate every aspect of someone’s day-to-day, made all the more difficult when your sense of time has been impossible to comprehend. If nothing else, that unexpected second half saves “Gazer,” though it’s unlikely to prompt repeat views, it still captures enough attention to warrant one’s gaze. [B]