If a movie could embody the spirit of free jazz that would be it. Nicolas Roeg crafts a time-mosaic type of troublesome love story between two characters that from different backgrounds do not exactly now or understand what they want from one another in their relationship.

Art Garfunkel plays Alex Linden, a psychoanalyst professor in university, who lacks the same analytical eyes that he uses to understand others when it comes to understand himself and what he wants from his relationship with Milena (played by Theresa Russell). On the other hand, Milena is a free-spirited, wild young woman who, although also wanting the affection from Alex, cannot stand and keep up with his more sober and traditional approach to life and love.

Unfortunately, this great underlying conflict, that reaches dramatic proportions, gets quite diluted by the too exaggerated and all over the place construction of the story by Roeg. Continuous flashbacks, some of them earlier in time, some of them not so much, some of the quite long, some of them rather quick, dissipate this psychological aspect to the tale. Even with the performances by the main duo being quite good, this overreliance on much more the form, over the characters and the plot, hurts the connection that you might have with the protagonists and their issues.

Said that, the truth is that although we lose this personal connection with the characters, this experimental approach is so radical and different that it keeps you in a way still interested in the movie. Maybe, as it has been mentioned, not as much for the story but for the sake of the form, as not only is the timing and narrative order of the movie that gets bent but many other elements as well. Camera movements, editing (not only visual but regarding to sound as well), the soundtrack (classical, jazz, rock, arabic…), all technical departments concerning the making of a film get somehow twisted and originally used in this film.

In conclusion, the movie becomes more of creative and artistic test-run than a well-rounded film on itself. Nonetheless, this creativity and breath of fresh air exude by the piece alongside its good acting (special mention to Denholm Elliott, who has a brief amount of screentime but totally steals each scene he is in) compensate to a certain extent the detachment that as an audience you feel towards the characters and their troubles, making it an overall still enjoyable ride.