Watching the film “Clouds of Sils Maria” is a lot like cloud watching: moving in slow motion and you aren’t quite sure what to look for. The film revolves around a cinematic adaption of a play,“Maloja Snake.” Back then Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) a renowned veteran actress, starred as Sigrid, a young girl who seduces an older woman, Helena. This film sheds a lot of insight into Maria’s relationship with other characters and her thoughts on the film, pop culture, and aging.

The film begins with a flustered Valentine (Kristen Stewart), the assistant to Maria, juggling multiple phone calls while on a train ride to the Alps. This is probably one of the most action packed scenes in the entire film: multiple phone calls, Maria speaking in French, her divorce from her husband, and the sudden death of the director of “Maloja Snake.” Afterwards a cloudy atmosphere hangs over the trip, but life carries on. Maria attends a memorial service, and tries on Chanel dresses for a photo shoot. A new director takes over the project to revive “Maloja Snake” to stage with a rebellious actress, Jo-An (Chloë Grace Moretz), to play Sigrid. Initially Maria declines to portray Helena; she prefers to keep her innocent image as Sigrid and finds Helena unlikeable. Eventually she decides to take on the role.

Maria and her assistant Valentine reside in the French Alps to prepare for her role. It involves a lot of hiking, beautiful scenery, and an interesting relationship between Maria and Valentine begins to unfold. While rehearsing dialogue, it dips between fiction and reality, hinting that Maria has developed a strong attachment to Valentine, or maybe more. She confides her with anxieties, movies, and relies on Valentine’s cool wisdom. Perhaps Maria is attracted to Valentine because she reminds her of innocence, youth, or possibly her younger self. Tension forms between the two as Valentine remarks: “What am I doing here? You hate the play, your character. Anyone can run your lines with you.”

I went into this movie with high expectations. An ensemble of influential women actresses, who knows what could happen! I felt that this film had a lot of potential with the themes it was dealing with, wonderful actors, and locations in the bag. Kristen Stewart and Chloë Grace Moretz really steal the screen. However, the film packs too much plot without a central storyline to grasp. I didn’t know what was going on even half an hour into the movie. The director criticizes our modern era: endless hours on google searches of troubled celebrities, indifferent people, and trivial talk show interviews. But they don’t seem to move the plot along. They are only background props to indicate the time period and persona. The characters reveal very little, save for Valentine since she knows everything being Maria Ender’s assistant. The scenes just dragged on with very slow plot development.

As the movie ends I’m not only asking for Maria’s thoughts, I’m also left wondering what in the world happened to Valentine. How does the play turn out? This whole film feels like an unfinished and unfocused script. However, I did find Valentines’s profound convictions intriguing.

“Cruelty is cruel. Suffering sucks. Helena’s mature and innocent. She’s innocent in her own right.”

I liked the film for its visual grace more than for the story. Lots of fade-ins and fade-outs, scenic drives, fog rolling into the valley. It’s a calm setting compared to Maria’s hectic life. But it’s also timeless, just like the way Maria wants to keep her innocent and youthful image alive.

I still have mixed feelings on this film. It definitely passes the Bechdel test, providing us with complex female protagonists and a play within a play like story. However the pacing and plot of this movie wasn’t my cup of tea.