Strangely, it is the very 'manufactured' textures that infuse this curious short film, whose simple goal is to amaze us with computer technology's ability to 'build' parallel worlds, that undo the filmmaker's own premise. Instead of being overawed by his minutely-detailed virtual world, I am left cold by it. It is sterile as an aesthetic experience--admittedly, the way most digital art is. The only thing I could think of when she smelled that flower was how it probably smelled like one of those synthetic, chemical cans of car air-freshener. This is meant as no disrespect to the filmmaker. But it does highlight one of paradoxes of the web: all our excitement about this exploding technology notwithstanding, it still can't mask the inescapable fact that an ersatz reality remains just that--deeply unsatisfying, and ersatz.