Jim Lau and Elizabeth Sung in For Izzy (Facebook)

This part faux-documentary, part sincerest of dramas kicks off with in-your-face intimacy, made possible by having someone talk directly at the camera. Strung-out, self-destructive Los Angeles photographer Dede (Michelle Ang) levies a toxic half-rap, half-rant at her ex-fiancée, Chloe (Liz Femi), who apparently had enough of her Oxycontin-fueled antics and dumped her. The sequence has the feverish, disjointed quality of a bad dream and culminates in rehab for Dede, along with the only outcome that could possibly be even worse for her: a visit from her extremely judgmental mother, Anna (Elizabeth Sung).

Meanwhile, single dad and work-from-home accountant Peter (Jim Lau) is doing his best to care for his autistic daughter, Laura (Jennifer Soo, disappearing convincingly into the role), who has a tendency to wander out of their house and across the street. That’s how the two families first become acquainted: Peter chases Laura to Dede’s driveway, where the latter is the midst of a verbal dust-up with Anna. By this time, we know that Laura is obsessed with taking pictures with her camera, to the point at which she’ll throw a fit if Peter tries to take her camera away. That, plus the fact she likes to pseudo-rap, thanks to a rhyming children’s book, makes her seem the ideal companion for Dede.

What follows is a heartwarming if paper-thin story about two families growing into one. Everyone’s a winner initially. Laura gets her first real friend, while Dede, who takes Laura on as her assistant, learns to become responsible, which keeps her from relapsing. And then there are the parents, who fall in love over the course of a courtship so polite that it’s adorable. Yet nothing good ever lasts, although the catalyst for a breakup could have been more plausible. We are expected to believe that Peter, who has been overprotective from the start, would leave Laura in someone’s care for an extended time without mentioning she has certain triggers.

Characters get spread to the four winds, at which point they exist in stasis awaiting Laura, who will inevitably bring everyone back together because she doesn’t understand why people who love one another would stay apart. She has a pure soul in the way that developmentally challenged protagonists in the movies often do (see Forrest Gump), which makes Laura sometime seem less a character and more a device to move the plot forward. She precipitates so much change in those around her, but by the end, we still only know her in a superficial way.

For Izzy was directed by Alex Chu, who also wrote the screenplay and deserves credit for populating the story with characters that are usually at the periphery of most films. He puts them front and center. The most intriguing of them all is Anna, who may seem like a textbook dragon lady at first, but then the movie delves into where her especially harsh side comes from. We also get to see her and Peter act like a pair of giddy teenagers while their love is new. Sitting on his front porch every night, they sing old Cantopop songs, dance under a porch light, and even share a homemade joint—this is California, after all.

Chu’s directorial style can be a little heavy-handed at times, with characters telegraphing trouble ahead by speaking to the camera in ominous tones during the faux-documentary segments. Nevertheless, he proves a resourceful filmmaker, using simple animated sequences representing Laura’s point of view. In addition, Chu finds a way to tie all of the different types of storytelling together with a clever ending. I look forward to whatever he does as a follow-up, though next time, he should feel free to leave the kids at home.

For Izzy will screen at NewFest on Saturday, October 27.