“Invention,” an indie film combining real footage and fictional narrative to create a unique, mysterious and lightly comical meta-portrait of a woman’s grief over her dead father, plays for one week at Metrograph In Theater beginning this Friday, April 18. Go here for showtimes and ticket information.

Callie Hernandez stars as “Carrie Fernandez” (some characters erroneously refer to her by her real name, one of several fourth wall breakages that pepper the film), a woman whose estranged father (referred to as “Doctor J”) has just died. After arranging the most inexpensive funeral (cremated remains in a plain plastic box) she can manage, Carrie learns that the only claim she has on his estate is ownership of a mysterious and controversial patent.

She visits his house, currently for sale, to explore the objects he has left behind, most importantly the only working prototype of his patented invention, a sci-fi prop-looking device that he claimed can heal any number of human ailments. (An “electromagnetic healing device,” the executor of his will calls it.) The story is punctuated by actual videotapes of Hernandez’s real late father’s TV appearances and interviews, who was an alternative health doctor in the last three decades.

The rise of alternative medicine in the U.S. is largely due to a genuine cynicism about the legitimacy of health claims made by our FDA, whose “food pyramid” is well known to be informed by big food corporate influence. Unfortunately this has also opened the door for a huge industry of con artists, hucksters and snake oil salespeople, making it very difficult for anyone without a medical or nutrition degree to evaluate their products and solutions, a sad situation that has reached its nadir recently with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s preposterous appointment as this country’s Secretary of Health and Human Services!

Carrie’s not interested in the patent or the invention but she becomes intrigued as she meets some of the people in the small town who knew her father and are shocked to learn of his death: Tony, an antiques dealer who invested in his ideas and lost money but who believes in his theories: “If we could tune those communications on the bio photonic level–be a game changer.” A woman suffering from TMJ and IBS who claims the device healed her. A wealthy investor who offers to buy the patent from her. A machinist who demands she let him pray for her. A Boston Celtics fan who takes her to a low-budget Alice in Wonderland park amongst a field of corn and later sleeps with her.

The 72-minute feature attempts to connect grieving a complex, conspiratorial parent to something prevalent in today’s world but with inconclusive results. Director Courtney Stephens, who is known for experimental films which often use found and ephemeral footage, does visual cutaways which lend the film a poetic resonance, but the brevity of the film and its lack of real suspense or menace and the lackluster performances of most of the minor characters temper the work’s potential to engage or disturb.

The only films I’ve seen Callie Hernandez (who resembles Katherine Ross in her twenties) in before are “La La Land” (a brief dancing scene) and “Under the Silverlake,” the wonderful David Robert Mitchell 2018 film which has sparked a deserved cult following. She’s quite good here but most of the other parts are played by what appear to be non-actors and at least two veteran indie directors (Joe Swanberg and Caveh Zahedi) portray two of the people Carrie meets during her visit. Those cameos suggest that “Invention” may have also intended to be a meditation on film investigation itself as a working through of grief, however the case remains cold.