Latin American cinema plays on observation, often demanding its audience find the answers for themselves instead of providing them outright. It can have the effect of pulling the audience deeply into a narrative, but also runs the danger of creating a distancing act if the sufficient information is not provided.

It is a balancing act that director Dominga Sotomayor juggles in her film "Mar," the story of a young couple that goes on vacation in hopes of addressing major questions about their future.

Or so says the synopsis for the film. The questions about the future are addressed in one scene and never return, the film essentially moving about in improvisational manner.

Martin and Eli's relationship is rather distanced from the start. The characters barely look at one another when they talk. There is usually only one member in the party talking during a conversation. They sleep facing opposite sides. And at a party, Eli is more interested in dancing with a stranger while Martin wants to jam on his guitar, smoke weed and do nothing about his girlfriend's blatant flirtation. So what exactly could they want with one another?

The major issue is that Sotomayor never makes so much as an intent at showing the viewer whether these two young people even care. Half-way through the 61-minute movie, Martin's mother shows up and we finally actually see the young man show so much as a discerning look toward someone. Suddenly he comes alive and as he does so does the film.

Prior to the mother's arrival, Sotomayor's visuals are rather cluttered and subversive of compositional rules. Characters' heads are cut off and the camera is as unsteady as they come. There are a ton of images that show characters' back facing away from camera, emphasizing the distancing act. When the mother arrives, we actually start seeing more traditional closeups and compositions, allowing viewers, for the first time, to feel invited into the drama.

Yet the mother's issues are merely hinted at and the characters' relationships never really move in any particular direction. Indifference might be the best way to express how everyone in this movie feels.

And that is unfortunately how the audience winds up feeling about this film as well.

For as interesting an experiment as "Mar" might be, the reality is that the observations add up to little for audiences. With no understanding of who these people are or what they want, what ends up happening is that we seem to be staring at blank slates.

To Sotomayor's credit, she keeps the film at 60-minutes, though the slow cutting certainly makes the film feel a great deal longer than.

The actors Lisandro Rodriguez and Vanina Montes are as good as the material allows them to be, though Andrea Strenitz fares far better as the mother who hints at neurotic potential and is the lifeblood of the movie.

"Mar" is screening at Lincoln Center's "Neighboring Scenes" series, which runs Jan. 7-10, 2016.