Johann, a guard in Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, meets Anne, who has traveled from Canada to be with her comatose cousin. Within this alienated atmosphere, the two strangers—portrayed by non actor Bobby Sommer with singer and occasional actress Mary Margaret O’Hara—connect through art and jokes and their unique paths. Unusual entities among cinematic characters, they remain somewhat mysterious to each other and to the audience, and unlike the standard Hollywood fate, their fate is not a romantic one. The romance in Musuem Hours instead emerges in its luxurious philosophical meanderings and in the gently guided exploration of public spaces and private interactions. Cohen opens the narrative up even further by traversing time through the shared experience of art; in particular, that of Pieter Brue gel, whose works also tend to lack a distinct center and, in fact, draw the eye to the more inglorious elements. Rather than elite or esoteric diversions, both Brue gel’s paintings and Cohen’s experimental film draw the eye back down to Earth to the mysterious, awkward pleasures of our uncelebrated, mortal pursuits.