When a grieving neuroscientist uses AI technology that allows her to reconnect with her dead father, she finds herself surfing waves of emotion and questioning life itself. That’s the winning premise in O Horizon, writer/director Madeleine Rotzler’s adult fairy tale starring Maria Bakalova (The Apprentice, Creature Commandos, Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm), David Strathairn (Nomadland), and — big surprise — Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Aimee Mann, whose music fueled the Magnolia soundtrack and was also featured in Jerry McGuire. “Obviously this is a dream cast,” Rotzler told MovieWeb in a recent interview, adding:
“Great actors make writing great. They’re everything. With Aimee, we just got so lucky. I love her music. For her to guide Maria’s character and sing music live was a dream. I really wanted the film to cross genres as much as possible, and I’ve always wanted to do live music in a movie. So, having her there, to physically be there singing for us in the film, was really special. It was the last day of the shoot [when] she did that and everybody was crying. She moved us, and I think it will move people when they see the movie as well.”
Aimee Mann’s Pivotal Character
Mann doesn’t appear until the latter half of the film. There’s great storytelling beforehand, however, as Bakalova’s character, Abby, considers doing the unthinkable: downloading an app (supplied by a techy played by Adam Pally) that pulls everything from voice messages to emails a person received from a loved one. In this case, Abby’s father (played by Strathairn). The result finds Abby chatting with her father, all the while trying to balance her new scientific study and a potential new beau, Jerry (played by Dante Jeanfelix).
On that note… Abby and Jerry’s impromptu weekend escape finds them renting a forest pad from Aimee Mann, who plays herself in the film. The popular singer, who rose to fame in the 1990s and delivered hit songs like “Save Me,” “Wise Up,” “One,” and “Charmer,” plays a sage-like figure in the film as it leans into magical realism.
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Maria Bakalova proves herself as a stellar leading lady yet again in this instant crowd-pleaser about a neuroscientist mourning her father.
The Genesis of ‘O Horizon’
4
/5
Runtime
107 Minutes
Director
Madeleine Rotzler
Writers
Madeleine Rotzler
Producers
Mark Gill, Madeleine Rotzler, Audrey Tommassini, Joseph Cross, Paul Nelson
Rotzler said the idea for the movie came during the pandemic. “I just really wanted to watch something uplifting, something that didn’t shy away from the serious things that we all go through but left me with a feeling of hope. I wanted to live in an alternate reality for a little while.”
With all the uncertainty circulating around the globe these days, Rotzler hopes the film inspires audiences to reflect on their own relationships, and maybe lean into a little magic along the way.
“When I wrote O Horizon, it was really meant to be a fable,” Rotzler said, adding:
“Abby falls into ‘the rabbit hole,’ and from then on, her world is really transformed. She can speak to someone who is gone. The crazy things that happen in this movie definitely stretch reality, then Abby encounters a mysterious oracle in the forest [Mann] who helps her. So, she finds inspiration and motivation to step forward in her life, taking in this loss with her father rather than rejecting it or feeling that she has to move past it.”
O Horizon is playing at film festivals across the country, most recently at SBIFF. Mark Gill executive produced O Horizon with Paul Nelson and Audrey Tommassini Cross producing. Watch this space for updates.
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