Leave Me Like You Found Me

Erin and Cal spent the past 12 months apart, and now, after a year of heartbreak, they decide to give it another go. They get back together with the aim of giving their relationship a new, preferably permanent, lease on life. They take what they hope will be a romantic trip in California’s Sequoia National Park, but things go awry when they start trying to sort out problems which crop up along the way. Their efforts to make a new beginning are constantly marred by reminders of faults, now breaking through the surface, which were papered over by memories of the good times. And not even the beauty and majesty of the subtly lensed landscape can obscure them. This meticulously scripted film plays its protagonists off each other, not showing them in the best light. Nevertheless, it brings out a degree of authenticity, inviting viewers to recognize something about themselves. Given the trivial causes of the quarrels, however, they would probably prefer it if the situations described weren’t so familiar. (Karlovy Vary International Film Festival)