First seen staring at a blank canvas as if he wants to murder it, Bentley turns out to be a struggling painter whose latest efforts just aren’t selling, even though his devotion to his work is causing friction with his wife (Ahna O’Reilly). He does have one buyer, however: a mysterious elderly man (Frank Langella) living alone, save for a housekeeper, in a palatial estate. Langella isn’t actually interested in Bentley’s paintings, it soon emerges—rather than commission something new, he offers Bentley $1,000 to videotape the sunset from a specific location on a specific day and time. Subsequent, equally detailed videotaping gigs make it pretty clear that Langella may be interested in something more than pretty pictures, especially when one particular woman (Sarah Paulson) and/or her daughter (Mila Brener) keep happening by the shoots.
Snail paced, insufferably portentous, and virtually devoid of notable incident, The Time Being stretches the mystery of Langella’s intentions as thin as it possibly can, which makes it all the more irritating when the answer (revealed near the film’s midpoint to those who haven’t long since guessed) turns out to be so utterly banal. Meanwhile, Bentley’s weird emotional inaccessibility precludes any sort of interesting relationship between the two men, leaving the gifted Langella with little to do but project a weary cantankerousness. The movie does have an unusually rich visual palette, given its budget—credit either first-time director Nenad Cicin-Sain, who has a background in commercials and music videos, or hot new cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. (The Master)—but after all the ponderous heavy breathing, it has nothing more profound to say than “artists should not neglect their families in pursuit of excellence.” Which might not ring so false if Bentley didn’t constantly look on the brink of devouring his family alive.
