THE ROADS NOT TAKEN Trailer

Life gets twisty in The Roads Not Taken, the latest from writer/director Sally Potter.

For reasons that aren’t entirely clear from this trailer, Leo seems to be a bit in and out of his life. That’s because he’s moving between different realities, playing things out as if he had made different choices at key moments. Whether this is real or not, he does seem to have a home base in a world where his daughter is struggling to care for him, and as they journey through New York City together (and he journeys much farther), decisions must be made on how to keep going.

It’s another odd piece from Potter, who’s played with time and reality before. Orlando, arguably her most famous film, had a main character that didn’t age for 400 years (and there was a gender switch in there), so in comparison, the promised opaqueness of Roads Not Taken seems pretty tame.

And even if this does seem too muddled for you, there’s the promise of Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, Salma Hayek, and Laura Linney in a movie together. Bardem and Fanning are the main father-daughter pair while the others spiral in and out of their orbit, perhaps not even existing in the same reality.

Let’s be honest, I don’t really know what’s going on from this trailer, but I don’t think that’s important. This looks like a mood piece, and since it’s coming from Potter, it could be something truly great. We’ll have to wait for its premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival to find out.

The Roads Not Taken is directed by Sally Potter and stars Javier Bardem, Elle Fanning, and Salma Hayek. It will be released in the US on March 13th, 2020. For international release dates, click here.

Are you interested in this film? Let us know in the comments!