Steven wants to commit suicide with a pistol inside his home. However, out of the blue, a woman appears in his room and claims to be an inter-dimensional being who wants him to reconsider. He speaks about his disappointment with the world, where bad things happen to good people while bad persons are rewarded, but she insists that there are forces of good and forces of evil in the Universe, and that he should try to change the world himself by doing good deeds to help strengthen the forces of good. 20 years later. She shows up again in Steven's room. He tells her he followed her advice and spent time on the Indian subcontinent and Africa doing charity. He remembers how a girl he loved from his school, Sara, died when a car hit her a long time ago. 20 years later. She visits Steven again...
Experimental film "The Bestowal" is the darnedest thing. It's deeply philosophical, but not very cinematic: dry and exhausting at times, since watching just two people for 90 minutes requires a lot of focus. It's more like a podcast. Maybe it would have worked better as a short film. It reminds of the T. Lee Jones film "Sunset Limited", where we also have a semi-monodrama with just two characters, one of which is trying to persuade the other not to commit suicide. It also evokes, to a certain degree, memories of "My Dinner with Andre", where the entire film was also just two people having a conversation. But it needed a lot more ingenuity to sustain the interest and engage the viewers, such as fresher or more memorable lines. Too much of the lines between the man and the mysterious woman is just the same thing again and again, running around in circles, with observations about life and society which were already done. Too didactic at times, instead of also showing these emotional changes within Steven, with some pretentious monologues (such as when Steven recounts how he "looked into the eyes" of a man and saw "the reflection of God"), though there were a few interesting contemplations, such as when Steven laments about the greed in Capitalism, but she just points out that this greed is actually just a manifestation of something that was always inside such people. Admittedly, "The Bestowal" has one strong, rewarding feature: the ending is surprising, emotional and remarkably satisfying, almost cathartic. It achieves this since it speaks about some abstract existentialist themes in a very touching manner, including trying to find inner peace, closure in life through companionship—but also the motive of eternal return (and self-improvement), showing how a lonely, but charitable man is rewarded in the next life with that what he wanted or missed.
Grade:++
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