In recent years, a trend has emerged within filmmakers who seek to make a strong emotional point through their stories. Depending on the subject, these stories can either come at you all at once or slowly unfold in front of the audience. Intent exists within these two choices and if the creatives have done their jobs correctly, you’ll not notice it until the movie ends. Having seen Annie Baker’s feature directorial debut Janet Planet at this year’s Phoenix Film Festival, the benefit of time has allowed a reflection on its themes.

Baker, a well-respected and lauded playwright, understands her stage; that is to say that Janet Planet, a film with three parts sees Julianne Nicholson’s Janet, an acupuncturist hippie and Zoe Ziegler’s precocious Lacy, Janet’s daughter being the through line of all three parts, as their emotionally complicated lives intersect with Wayne (Will Patton), Janet’s boyfriend, Regina (Sophie Okonedo) and, Avi (Elias Koteas).

Of the troupe, Ziegler’s performance struck and stuck the most. To see the way Baker shapes Lacy’s world over the comings and goings of Janet’s life as each situation unfolds was impressive. Baker strikes a specific chord within each character as she has Janet’s life introduced to Lacy into an already strained mother-daughter relationship soured by Janet’s freewheeling nature and Lacy’s need for her mom.

That Baker does this over three individual acts makes the overall story feel slower than it should. Janet is resolute in broadening Lacy’s world and throughout Janet Planet and this action, while understood, works for and against the various events in the film. Patton’s Wayne represents a future that Lacy does not understand and cannot cope with – she’s going through feelings of attachment toward Janet, which only grows stronger.

Patton’s performance was solid, though his Wayne felt less effective in the film than Baker intended. Okonedo’s Regina similarly takes Janet’s attention and affection away from Lacy. Okonedo’s performance is hilariously solid. Regina has worldly advice for Lacy and blithely trudges on advising Lacy as if Regina was giving herself advice and not listening to it, pulling Lacy further into Janet’s orbit. Koteas’ Avi is the most eccentric of the three characters, an aspect that the actor has down pat as the least self-centered character of the trio in Janet’s world; if Lacy weren’t clingy toward Janet from Wayne and Regina, Avi does the trick.

Where does that leave Janet Planet?

“In a lurch,” is the best way to describe it. Being in tune with Baker’s style and her characters, Lacy’s reaction to free-wheeling individuals being attached to Janet is overwhelming at best. The speed at which Baker injects Wayne, Regina, and Avi into each situation is almost too slow to allow Lacy to process, so much so, that it can be off-putting. On the other hand, Lacy’s reaction is exactly why Janet Planet works. As the audience, we can relate to feeling left behind or feeling abandoned and not knowing how to process the emotions, nor react even if we want to scream at the screen, “Get on with it already!”

Confounding Janet Planet further is a brightly lit, sunny Vermont countryside, courtesy of cinematographer Maria von Hausswolf that fills the outdoor scenes effectively effusing ‘hope;’ hope that Lacy can come to terms with the idea that life changes for all of us and we have to accept and adapt, or just accept and move on.

Similarly, editor Lucian Johnson ensured that all three parts were siloed while carrying through Lacy’s attachment to Janet; the mechanics are understood even if they don’t serve the story as effectively in a film format as they would on a stage.

Annie Baker can certainly corral emotions in a uniquely satisfying way. Zoe Ziegler’s performance is a testament to that. Janet Planet on the other hand is an artsy attempt at grabbing our empathy or sympathy and we’re reduced to the individual elements at hand. Its slower pace doesn’t help nor hurt the film as it engenders a stronger reaction relating to the characters in an unsatisfying way.

Janet Planet simply exists, trapped in its self-gratifying, circuitous gravity.