The first act of Anne Marie Fleming’s Can I Get a Witness doesn’t explain a lot about two of its three main characters. Kiah (Keira Jang) and Dianel (Joel Ouelette) go to people’s houses like door knock sales people or people doing surveys. In one of the homes, Kiah plays the piano for her host. Eventually, they go to a couple (Ben Immanuel and Yuki Morita) who die by suicide.

By this time, the viewers understand what’s going on. In this world, people die by suicide by 50, a fact of life that Daniel is sure about because of his own brush with death. Kiah’s having a harder time dealing with seeing death up close, and she has fellow End of Life Witnesses helping her. But during an appointment, the host says something, making Kiah realize what’s off with her mom Ellie (Sandra Oh).

This film has an interesting premise, but the execution of the premise either makes or breaks what viewers experience. Either a film has to explain itself during its first act or let the premise organically unfold, its pieces finally shaping up. I may get to whether or not its decision to procrastinate its explanation and world building is a good choice or a bad one. And perhaps the scene when I had the eureka moment is part of me explaining if the film worked.

Or maybe it doesn’t. There’s just a lot of things going on during that couple in the field scene. Here, Daniel has to be shirtless for some reason. I’m no prude and I like seeing young men show flesh. However, if he did have a reason, I guess the mic wasn’t recording why. Can I Get A Witness tries to picks itself up as characters explain their back stories. But previous things distract in bad ways.

Speaking of back stories, Can I Get A Witness does a lot of those and the explanations don’t stop after that one moment. Such explanations come out when Daniel and Kiah meet other End of Life Witnesses in what looks like a support group. There, some of the Witnesses talk about how they decompress, like borrowing rare DVDs of classic films like Zoolander. Before that though, one of the group leaders explained why there’s an international law stating to euthanize people over 50.

During part of the explanation, one of the leaders he explains something to his coworkers. He explains the third world, where I ‘come from’. I’ll give this film the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he gets the definition wrong as an intentional choice but it still made me scream. At this point, I would have been ok seeing a CGI prologue of this film. It seems better than watching this guy explain the 20th century.

Can I Get A Witness’ third act may remind viewers of what Roger Ebert once said about how to rescue movies with flaws. From what I remember, he wrote something about how any film, regardless of what happens, needs a fantastic ending. The ending here feels good the first time I experienced it. I mean, many movies can benefit from a Sandra Oh monologue. Well, it’s not exactly a monologue. It’s Ellie professing a love so deep that it guides her generation’s decisions.

But as good as this ending is, it doesn’t negate the slog beforehand. Viewers had to endure a lot before an otherwise great scene. It also doesn’t negate how bad the film’s politics are. I write this despite its supposedly good intentions to show a dystopian future. The world never has to resort to Logan’s Run-ing old people. And I’m not just saying this because I’m in my thirties.

Can I Get A Witness comes to select Canadian theatres.