Altered Reality
Directed by Don FauntLeRoy
Written by Charles Agron
Starring Charles Agron, Tobin Bell, Alyona Khmara, & Krista Dane Hoffman
Unrated
Runtime: 1 hour and 39 minutes
Available on VOD on February 18

by Cleo Tunningley, Staff Writer

Don FauntLeRoy’s Altered Reality takes us on a journey through time and tax brackets with Oliver Cook (Charles Agron who also wrote the script) , an everyman who stumbles into possession of a mysterious miracle drug, one with the power to cure any and all illnesses. Before he gets a chance to enjoy the fabulous wealth that this pharmacological discovery brings him, Oliver’s daughter goes missing. The film follows Oliver and his wife, Caroline (Alyona Khmara), as they reckon with the consequences of sudden worldwide fame and the envy of those less fortunate.

The bulk of the film is spent in the year after Oliver’s daughter goes missing as he prepares to introduce his miracle drug to the world. As different people try to steal from Oliver and rip apart his marriage, he proves over and over again that he has an almost Christ-like resistance to temptation.

It is not hard to tell that Agron wrote the script. His self-insert, Oliver, can do no wrong. When he does, it’s actually not his fault, and you better believe that whoever wronged him is going to get what’s coming to them. Characters apologize for upsetting Oliver, they proposition him for sex, they grow depressed when he’s away and always long for him to return. To paraphrase a classic Simpsons joke: when Oliver’s not on screen, all of the characters should be asking, “Where’s Oliver?”

Tobin Bell – playing pharmaceutical lawyer Cooper Mason as the suave Devil on Oliver’s shoulder – stands out as the most convincingly human member of the cast. This is exactly the type of guy that Jigsaw would strap into a bear trap, a being of pure greed and slime dead-set on making a profit off of the suffering of others. Just to make sure we get the idea, Cooper watches the stocks tick by on a flatscreen TV hung up in his swanky office. He is the string-pulling Mephistopheles to Oliver’s hapless Faust.

With the sweaty entrepreneurial charm of an out-of-work actor slumming it in a cryptocurrency commercial, Cooper promises Oliver rare art, vintage wines, and expensive sex workers in exchange for a piece of his wealth.

Krista Dane Hoffman entertains as Alex, the second villain thrown into Oliver’s path, if only because she’s allowed to have the most fun. She sends unwanted sexy photos to Oliver, pops speed, and tries on his wife’s lingerie in an attempt to further destabilize his already-unstable marriage. Hoffman plays Alex as a caricature of the “debased whore” archetype, with Caroline fulfilling the opposite role of Oliver’s faithful Madonna. Alex is one of those less fortunate people – a violent drug addict and gasp, an orphan – who stand between the Cook family and their prosperity. In the strangely puritanical moral hierarchy of Altered Reality, she is lower than dirt.

When Altered Reality tries in earnest to lean into sleaze and cheap thrills, it’s hard to take it seriously. Like Oliver, the film resists temptation at all turns. This wouldn’t be a problem if it didn’t seem so intent on titillating the viewer. There’s murder, sex, and drugs, but they all do little to quicken the pulse because of the film’s refusal to actually wallow in the depths of luridity. Take, for example, the marriage-ruining sexy selfies that Alex sends to Oliver. They’re all just… pictures of her smiling face. It looks less like she’s trying to seduce him and more like she’s asking him to help pick out her next Facebook profile picture.

As if half-remembered from an interrupted dream, Altered Reality stumbles through its third act in search of redemption for Oliver. It’s random but hardly surprising when – late in the film – our protagonist travels back to the Salem Witch Trials. In Altered Reality, it seems anything is possible. I will give the film that. It is genuinely difficult to predict where the plot is going, and following along can be as fun as it is bewildering. Okay, it’s been a time travel movie this whole time? Sure! Now there’s an actual witch with real, magic powers? Got it! Edward Asner even pops up towards the end to offer some posthumous folksy wisdom and exposition. Simply put, there is a lot going on here.

This reheated Faustian broth is bland as can be, so FauntLeRoy and Agron keep adding ingredients to see if the soup can still be salvaged. Altered Reality is told with such little panache that I would have welcomed and completely understood the addition of breakdancing aliens or a talking dolphin – anything to break up the monotony of repeatedly learning that our main character is the most put-upon yet perfect man in the world.

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