When a first-time filmmaker manages to achieve a distinctive vision, it's tempting to attribute all of his film's idiosyncrasies to the director's game plan. But Charlotte Sometimes is as much the product of rookie writer/director Eric Byler's inexperience as it is of his considerable talent. Told in a loose-limbed, elliptical style, the film allows its central relationships to come into focus slowly, through the accumulation of minute observations. But, in his quest to allow the story to tell itself, Byler sometimes forces the audience to fill in too many gaps. Motivations that should eventually spring into sharp relief remain vague and muddled. Meanwhile, at the level of plot and chronology, the final edit includes too many oversights; it's as if the connective logic between one moment and the next becomes unraveled at rare but regular intervals. For those willing to overlook such flaws, however, Charlotte Sometimes is a worthy investment of 90 minutes. The four central actors are uniformly compelling and unforced, especially Jacqueline Kim as the complex, manipulative Darcy. Byler's screenplay manages to allude to the cultural baggage of first- and second-generation immigrants while playing the central story as a universal relationship drama. The climax doesn't click, but it's fun getting there, and the director wisely keeps the running time as low-key as the script. Charlotte Sometimes is a modest debut, but one that deserves the acclaim it's received.