Linoleum Explains Itself Out of Compelling, Well-Acted Sci-Fi
Linoleum feels like it’s drawing on a lot of influences and, to its credit, never feels like it’s replicating them. With a suburban family dealing with the physical and emotional fallout of a spacecraft crash-landing in their backyard, while also dipping into the fantastical, there’s hints of Donnie Darko. With the dual performances from Jim Gaffigan as an emasculated soon-to-be divorcee and the successful military neighbor who cucks his job, there’s hints of Americanized Dostoyevsky. With a jobless TV science presenter fixated on rebuilding a rocket in his garage, there’s memories of Colin Trevorrow’s aimless, inferior Safety Not Guaranteed.
Linoleum’s writer-director Colin West has crafted something that feels unique and robust, with a striking visual palette and sure-footed melancholic-comic (melancomic?) tone. But while he gets credit for trying to pull off some unwieldy, contrived storylines with conviction, it’s in its final moments that Linoleum nearly buckles under its own weight. West is not content to let his film speak in pure abstractions, and is convinced that it’s better to give clear, explicit explanations for a story that would be better off trading solely in metaphor.
Cameron (Gaffigan) and Erin (Rhea Seehorn) used to host an educational science program for kids, but times move on, and his boss has opted for a more confident, assuring type of instructional programming—hosted by the sports car-driving, strong-mustached astronaut Kent Armstrong (also Gaffigan). Gaffigan’s chemistry with himself is stellar, imbuing two archetypal characters with pathos and charm, but even though Seehorn plays a mere 50% of her co-star’s parts, she deserves praise for her put-upon but deeply empathetic Erin. These are the right type of actors to lead this film; the sad comedy works well with the pair, and they greet the magical-realist, Spielberg-wonder moments with the right amount of deadpan.
Linoleum’s drama is well thought-out: Cameron and Erin’s marital issues impact the lives of their children, including their older daughter Nora (Katelyn Nacon) who chooses to grow closer to their new neighbor’s son Marc (Gabriel Rush) than her own family. Marc also shows more of an interest in Cameron’s astronomy and rocket-making than his own father, and it’s clear Marc is trying to shift away from Kent’s controlling influence just as Nora rejects Cameron’s lameness. Cameron’s insecurities aren’t just compounded by his mirror image; his elderly, dementia-suffering scientist father Mac (Roger Hendricks Simon) is equally responsible for his self-deprecating assessment of himself. (It’s here Tony Shalhoub drops in for a lovely, wry extended cameo as Mac’s physician.) Cameron’s ultimate project—building a functioning rocket in his garage—suffers from a lack of clarity as to whether the audience should expect him to be successful, but as a pipedream goal for someone in the throes of a mid-life crisis, it works.