'Upstream Color' Trailer: A Warning, Or A Promise?

This is the place where I'm supposed to be able to put the first footage from Shane Carruth's second film into some sort of context, but I just can't do it. The movie is Upstream Color, and it follows Carruth's 2004 indie sci-fi debut Primer. That '04 effort quickly became a benchmark in hardcore science fiction, thanks to the very matter of fact manner in which it explored the personal and moral ramifications that might arise if a couple guys had access to a time machine.

The trailer for Upstream Color is gorgeous — expect to hear more than a few references to Kubrick and Malick — but I can't pretend to have any idea about what it actually tells us about the film. Check it out below. 

I've watched that four times, and I still can't tell you what it is. Reading the synopsis below doesn't help. And I'm thrilled with that; the few glimpses we've had at the film so far have only increased my interest in the movie. Will the picture be brilliant, or inane, or just totally bonkers? I know where my hopes are pinned. To me, this is a promise of things to come, but I expect some audiences will see it as a warning that Upstream Color is not the sort of film they want to deal with.

Apple has the trailer. Upstream Color premieres in January at Sundance, and will have a March 22 release according to the movie info page at Apple.

A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the life cycle of an ageless organism.