“The Congress” is currently playing at select theaters. | Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Robin Wright stars as herself in the new film from Ari Folman (“Waltz with Bashir”), in which she finds herself past her prime and desperate for roles — or so her agent Al (Harvey Keitel) says.

Robin is told by Jeff Green (played by Danny Huston), the head of Miramount Studios, that they want to literally own her by “sampling” her in every way so that she can be forever young and used in any film. After much hesitation and pressure from Al, Robin agrees to permanently retire and become data for future use by film technicians, but what occurs was not spelled out in the contract.

“The Congress” was incredibly popular at the Austin Fantastic Fest last year, winning awards for Best Actress, Best Screenplay and Best Picture, but it’s not to everyone’s tastes.

With a running time of more than two hours, the film gets to be quite dreary once it loses sight of the story and becomes animated.

For the bulk of the film, it deals with the hallucinatory world that Robin is subject to; the “dream” reality of a fallen world. Subject matter from films like “The Matrix” and “Antiviral” show their influence, turning the originally good idea into a convoluted and trippy animated film, with random revolutionary ideals thrown in with themes of loneliness and longing.

In part, this segment of the film has much to do with animator Dylan Truliner (voiced by Jon Hamm), one of the people responsible for the new way of ignorant existence, a kind of animated limbo. The film gets more tiresome as it progresses. By the time it’s all over, there isn’t a sense of satisfaction — only confused depression and a feeling of time wasted.

The film was adapted from the novel by the Polish author Stanislaw Lem, who also penned “Solaris.” Fans of the novel might take more from the content of the film, but new viewers will be split.

Paul Giamatti is the best part of the film, and it’s a small part at that.

“The Congress” is now playing in select theaters.

arts@thedailycougar.com

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“‘The Congress’ falls short despite awards at Austin Fantastic Fest” was originally posted on The Daily Cougar