Here, director Mark Pellington seems to be aiming at a portrayal of nostalgia itself, with the people feeling it serving as necessary but ultimately unimportant vessels, the way a doctor researching cancer needs to see it working on a patient.

Nostalgia" is an effective portrait of lives lived, told through shifting stories that examine the various ways in which we categorize our memories.

A well-meaning, expertly acted film, it unfortunately drowns in its own sorrow, making its commercial prospects dim.