Kinds of Kindness

It feels more like a fascinating experiment or a workshop than a full-fledged film, but in Kinds of Kindness, the moments of inspiration outnumber those that fall flat.

This twisted triptych of dark contemporary fables from director Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) finds seven actors playing different roles in each of three loosely overlapping short stories.

There are thematic connective threads, such as deception, hunger, lost souls finding fulfillment, human connection through pain and suffering, relationships defined by power and control, illusion and duality, reproduction and reincarnation.

Such weighty material decreases the mainstream appeal, although the narrative puzzles yield rewards for those on the same offbeat wavelength. Moreover, a fully committed ensemble cast provides emotional depth in worlds that seem harsh and unforgiving, if also wickedly funny.

It starts with the strongest section, following a man (Jesse Plemons) whose every move and choice seems predetermined by his wealthy boss (Willem Dafoe), both personally and professionally. When he challenges that arrangement, his life begins to crumble.

The middle vignette, which is the weakest and least consequential of the trio, finds Plemons playing a cop whose missing researcher wife (Emma Stone) is found after an expedition. Only when she returns home, the man suspects she’s actually a clone of some sort, and is willing to engage in sadistic gamesmanship to prove himself right.

It wraps up with a tale in which Stone plays a troubled woman who leaves her husband (Joe Alwyn) to join a religious cult. But when tasked with finding a spiritual leader with the power to reanimate corpses, she becomes an outcast with an uncertain path.

Each segment evolves into an absurdist and often surreal odyssey of violence and despair that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality.

The sharply crafted screenplay by Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou (The Lobster) indulges in an array of peculiarities and eccentricities that maintain a morally ambiguous detachment. It doesn’t offer many characters we can genuinely care about.

Meticulous in its visual detail, as you’d expect from the Greek auteur, the film subtly layers discomfort into even the most innocuous sequences, frequently punctuated by a staccato piano score.

However, while it’s not cumulatively clever or profound as an abstract allegory, the film is carried by the actors — including Margaret Qualley, Hong Chau, and Mamoudou Athie. Captivating but hardly uplifting, Kinds of Kindness is overall easier to appreciate than to enjoy.

Rated R, 164 minutes.