The cerebral drama “Black Bear” builds a puzzle out of simple elements: a cabin in the woods and a romantic triangle.

It begins with Allison (Aubrey Plaza), a filmmaker who has come to write her next project at a cabin owned by Gabe (Christopher Abbott) and Blair (Sarah Gadon). They are a young couple expecting a child, and they present their impressive compound as an artist’s retreat. But there are signs of dissatisfaction. They gripe about feminism, airing old grievances in front of their new guest. Allison only heightens the discord by openly flirting with Gabe.

The trio’s conflicts spike quickly, but faced with an early climax, the story abruptly resets. The film’s second half starts completely fresh, keeping the same actors, but the relationships between their characters have been warped and refracted. Now Allison is a lead actress on a set where Gabe is the director. In this version of events, she and Gabe are the married couple, and Blair is the interloper, a co-star entertaining a flirtation with her director.

Lawrence Michael Levine wrote and directed this puzzle-box movie, and he juggles big ideas with enterprising panache. His ingenuity is particularly evident with his use of the movie’s single set — the cabin — which transforms from an attractive backdrop into a veritable soundstage for catastrophe. Around every corner lies another crisis, a canny stretch of a finite budget.

But Levine hasn’t created relationships that feel deep enough to elicit a sense of mystery. The movie plays like a well-crafted game, one with stable rules and safeties, perfectly enjoyable but limited. The director and the performers circle ideas about how intimacy can be manipulated to satisfy artistic ambitions, but the experiment feels easy to leave behind.

Black Bear
Rated R for nudity, sexual content, drug use and language. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters and on Google Play, Vudu and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators. Please consult the guidelines outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention before watching movies inside theaters.