Some people would do anything for love. That includes subjecting themselves to multiple scenarios that all involve being doused or splashed with copious amounts of water. At least, that’s the case in the short film Storm.

Written and directed by Will Kindrick, Storm is an art/romance short film set in a future where a new government ruling gives citizens a 12-month window to find their romantic match using a compatibility algorithm, or face being sent to a “permanent single lifestyle facility.” This material could make for an interesting rumination on societal pressures to find a mate, with complex world building and poignant subtextual messages. Unfortunately, Storm is more interested in being an overlong music video that forgot to include a song.

After an infomercial that constitutes all of the world building this film has to offer, we are introduced to Blake (John Burnaik), a handsome young man who has just one day left to find his compatible match or risk being sent to what essentially sounds like a concentration camp for single people. It just so happens that his government-issued relationship generating device shows a possible strong compatibility with a young woman named Natalie (Corey Potter) before he accidentally drops it in the tub. As the device malfunctions, Blake is sent to some sort of virtual world where he must traverse multiple liquid-based obstacles—most of which involve him being splashed in the face with water—in order to be united with his new match.

If I could describe this film in one word, it would be pretentious. There’s a wealth of interesting material inherent to the premise, but the film opts to use it as a pseudo-backdrop for music video style imagery and direction. It thinks that visual motifs are enough to make an audience think that it’s deep and thoughtful, and this kind of filmmaking is almost angering. There is no substance, no deeper meaning behind any of the motifs and imagery. It’s just a series of vignettes that try to be pretty enough to compensate for a lack of a story.

It doesn’t help that the film believes it can endear us to the romantic leads when they share maybe two minutes of screen time at most. While I appreciate visual storytelling and will commend the film for its sparse use of dialogue, nothing anchors us to their relationship outside of the fact that they’re legally required to find a mate. One can’t help but wonder how much more interesting a story where the protagonist is relocated to an ominous-sounding single-lifestyle-facility would have been. It would have been more so than a series of vignettes where someone is repeatedly splashed in the face with water.

From a technical standpoint, the film is competently crafted. The cinematography is polished and professional, using a warm color palette and cinema-vérité style camera work to illustrate the confusion and determination of the protagonist. This is coupled with fun editorial work, which makes effective use of match cuts as Blake is thrown from one water-based scenario to another. Even the cast does their best with what little material they have, and one could see promise for them in meatier, more performance-driven projects. Everyone’s work here shows potential, but this is not a case where impressive style can compensate for lackluster substance.

There’s little to nothing romantic or compelling about Storm. It’s a film that feels like it came from a pretentious film student who had the money to make it look polished. If this were legitimately a music video, it could certainly float above the water. As it is, however, Storm unfortunately drowns.