The movie keeps setting off little flares in your mind, and they provide a gathering illumination. Lines that pass at first with little apparent import — "There's something wrong with the world" or, "This is as real as anything can be" — take on a more unsettling resonance as we flash back on them. The picture is a metaphysical mystery that catches us off-guard at every turn. It's a creative triumph — small in scale, but rich in ideas — for first-time feature director August (a writer best-known for scripting several Tim Burton movies). And it's a quietly dazzling breakthrough for Ryan Reynolds, who has heretofore been indifferently utilized in movies like "Smokin' Aces" or consigned to elevating such schlock as "The Amityville Horror." Here he brings an effortlessly sexy glow to the role of Gary the actor and a tingling desperation to Gavin the writer; and in the end, as Gabriel, the creator of video-game worlds, he stands revealed as something completely unexpected.
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