Reckless love, life and death, and a talking polar bear (voiced by Gordon Pinsent) are all given equal time but not a trajectory we can follow.

"Two Lovers and a Bear" is above all thrillingly cinematic, even when its elements of lived-in intensity and jokey fantasy refuse to coalesce.

Beautiful and thoroughly unpredictable; you never know where Nguyen is going with this story, including the chilling, sci-fi/horror direction he heads in toward the film's climax.

It's real, a bit raw, and it works.