Fantasy Life

That Shear knows how to bring the storyline’s seasonal time frame to a cyclical close with humor, warmth and hope is the grace note that makes Fantasy Life feel like the start of a promising writing-directing career.

The brisk pacing of Fantasy Life is a credit to this editorial restraint, yet it also leads to one of the production’s few stumbles: its refusal to offer a satisfying, narratively cohesive ending. Even so, the film stands well on its own.

The top-to-bottom cast of proudly eccentric actors, including Holland Taylor, Jessica Harper, Zosia Mamet, and Bob Balaban (as Dianne’s father), ensures that every scene has moments of truth, and the filmmaker’s empathy pushes the movie over the finish line.

With a film called Fantasy Life, one might expect it to contain a romanticized version of reality, where the characters’ conflicts are magically solved, and their journeys are wrapped in a neat bow. Endearingly, Shear’s version is messier and far more grounded. While the characters live extremely privileged lifestyles and aren’t quite operating in the real world, the film simultaneously touches on the compelling subject matter of personal disillusionment and its impact on mental health struggles.

As a love story, Fantasy Life isn’t particularly original, but the low-key way Mr. Shear realizes some familiar situations is warm and human, with comic aspects and sad ones kept in an appealing balance.

For a movie about two people going through a wobbly patch, Fantasy Life glides with a sneaky storytelling ease.

Sam somewhat shrinks into the periphery of the story to make way for Amanda Peet's Dianne, whose tonal world is welcome, but certainly different. Rather than hold things together, Shear the filmmaker seems to step back, too. The result is a film that only exists in moments: sometimes funny, sometimes interesting, always lacking the cohesion necessary to add up to anything.