When a movie makes you reflect on something you should change in your life, you come to propose to do it and then forget why you were doing it. But when a movie reminds you that we live in measured times that at any moment the line can end for anyone, what do we do? Some try to build a legacy to leave behind, while others have their memories to last— queue Barbra Streisands’ The Way We Were for dramatic effect. Ens Rationis explores how we use our breathing time in metaphor dressed as fantasy.

Vivian (Janell Wolford) leaves the love of her life to spend the night at a middle-of-nowhere side-road motel. As the hours pass, Vivian awaits the visit of a stranger with whom she made a deal ten years ago: one thousand moments in exchange for more time on Earth. Was she obliged to comply or did she choose on her own? In the end, all choices lead to a moment as every moment is a choice.

Ens Rationis has such a good premise that it makes it hard to mention the flaws in its audio mixing. There a deep voice added effect to whenever the stranger speaks and it’s hard to understand his part of the dialogue. Other than that, the details are very unique as it includes so many metaphors that aren’t easy to recognize but some are obvious like setting it on stone— and the stranger carries a case filled with stones.

Ens Rationis reminds us that even though we live on borrowed time we get to make our own choices as long as they don’t affect another person’s freedom, and memories are ours to keep and only ours to forget when we leave. And, it also reminds us that you can do so much with so little— according to IMDb, the budget runs around $1,000.

7 OUT OF 10 STONES