Things aren’t as straightforward as they seem in Satellites and Meteorites, a playful romantic fantasy set inside the subconscious minds of two coma patients. Adam Fergus and Amy Huberman co-star.

In writer-director Rick Larkin’s offbeat romantic fantasy Satellites and Meteorites a man and woman lie in comas in an Irish hospital, linked only by an auto accident yet drawn together in their dreams to each other.

Despite a recurring line that insists “everything is real,” the film takes a bit of time in sorting out what is real and what isn’t. With actors playing multiple roles and the true identity of characters muddled between the real world and a dream state, there’s plenty of room for confusion.

Adam Fergus plays celebrated author Daniel Epson, who is startled to find that the principal character in the new book he is writing, the free-spirited Lucinda, has suddenly turned up for real in his life. She’s everywhere he goes, from suddenly being at his elbow when he’s writing at home to library readings of his works. Eventually they meet formally in a coffee shop. An American, Lucinda (perky Amy Huberman) tells Daniel she works for a communications satellite company, a nervous time for the company because of a meteorite shower that has been knocking out some of the “birds” in the sky.

The film’s premise seems wobbly because Daniel doesn’t go too far into investigating how Lucinda has come to be everywhere he is before he begins falling for her and vice-versa.

In the middle of all this, we’re introduced to Dr. Gore (Geoff Minogue), whose past affair with a woman named Emily has resulted in the disintegration of his marriage, although Emily is now dead. While this subplot is on a low simmer, we discover that Dr. Gore has two coma patients in the hospital. One of them is Daniel, who is not a writer at all, but owns a satellite company. The other is an unknown woman the hospital staff calls Emily, but who eventually turns out to be Lucinda.

Somehow, although Daniel and Lucinda have never met in real life, they become involved in each other’s dreams in which they begin falling in love with each other. And their dreams are colored by the real world. In hers, Lucinda’s boss looks like Dr. Gore.

At one point Daniel removes all his tubes and wanders down the hospital corridor at night for a conversation with the head nurse on duty, who swears this has really happened. Yet when they check on Daniel a moment later, he’s in his bed with all his tubes in place and the corridor camera showing no recording of his ever having left his room. Did his nighttime walk really happen? Oh well, why not? In a movie such as the one Larkin has concocted, anything seems up for grabs.

Some of this is frustrating. By the time things get sorted out and you think you have a handle on all of it, you will discover that you do not. Things are not as clear as it seems they are about to be. Yet once this odd love story begins fitting together, it takes hold, leading to a conclusion that seems very right and surprisingly touching. You can bet your pillow on that.

Satellites and Meteorites will be screened at 7:15 p.m. tomorrow at the Columbus Theatre, 270 Broadway, Providence, as part of the 12th Rhode Island International Film Festival. Tickets are $10 at the door. For a complete schedule go to rifilmfest.org.***

Satellites and Meteorites

Starring: Adam Fergus, Amy Huberman, Geoff Minogue, Joanne Crawford.

Rated: Not rated, contains adult themes.

mjanuson@projo.com