Doyle (Jason Isaacs) is a grouchy, self-important gargoyle with a chip on his shoulder – quite literally, as he was damaged in a fall during installation above the cathedral’s main entrance. Relegated to a back alcove with other irregular gargoyles, Doyle resents the hand life dealt him, especially the fact that he is stuck two feet from Chet (Haley Joel Osment), a decorative metal rain gutter. Chet is the yin to Doyle’s yang, a chatterbox optimist who never shuts up. Ever.
Doyle and Chet watch the world change around them as their alcove falls into disrepair. Hundreds of years later, as bulldozers surround the cathedral for demolition, both must confront who they really are and what their lives add up to. The first cinematic narrative for the era of spatial compuing, let an enigmatic guide (T’Nia Miller) transports you into the world of Doyle and Chet, while also bringing them out to share your world.
A comedy of two ill-matched characters trapped together for hundreds of years is the perfect canvas on which to explore some universals of human existence: our limited time on earth, and how we create reality with those around us. Space itself becomes an expression of the psychology of the characters while between the laughs we explore the nature of consciousness. The formal aspects of spatial media blur the edges of reality in ways that no previous format — cinema included — ever could: the visitor exists in a real room, populated by imagined creatures expressing desires and regrets. In the era of devices that blend actual and virtual spaces so convincingly we must ask ourselves: what is real, and who has the right to exist?
