By Adam Ruhl
Normally I post a couple of reviews together but after seeing this film tonight I knew I couldn't sit on this one. Submitted for your approval, I give you Time Lapse!
Time Lapse
dir: Bradley King
USA
runtime: 104 min
What would you do if you could send a message twenty four
hours into your past? Would you send warnings to try and benefit all humankind….
Or would you immediately use the power to make yourself rich? I suspect the
latter and that’s exactly the choice made by the three unlucky roommates in
this superb new film from writer/director Bradley King and writer B.P. Cooper.
Finn is a frustrated painter and property manager, sharing a house with his
girlfriend Callie and his best friend Jasper. One day they’re
alerted to the fact that the tenant across the way has not been missing for a week and, thinking him dead, they investigate his house. Instead of finding him
they find a large camera-machine pointed right at their own living room. On one
wall is covered with months’ worth of photos of them and incredibly there’s a
photo waiting for them from tomorrow. It seems that every night at 8 PM the
camera takes a photo and spits out the Polaroid from the next day. Eventually
they find the neighbor burned up in his storage unit; evidently the victim of
his own attempts to change his future. Rather than report the death to the
police, the trio choose to lock the unit and use the machine to send themselves
dog racing results from the future.
That’s right, they essentially choose to follow Marty Mcfly’s
scheme from Back to the Future Part 2 and it works out even less well for them.
Without getting into spoilers it’s safe to say I was expecting their plan to
turn disastrous. What I was not expecting was how brilliantly this plot would
unfold; the writing, acting, and direction are simply astounding. The film
twists and turns and offers ironic consequences that make it play out like a
feature length Twilight Zone; one of the really good episodes. The time element
is not overly complex; you won’t need to diagram the movie afterward to know
what happened.
The story is smart and layered and the filmmakers do a great
job of questioning the morality of fiddling with the past without lots of
preachy, techy exposition. Imagine the questions that arise from seeing a photo
of you from tomorrow. How did you get there? Why are you doing what you’re
doing? Do you have the ability to change and do something different? Finn,
Callie, and Jasper have to grapple with those questions right from the start. These
characters are normal people who have been given something of immense power and
are in no way prepared to handle it. Every time a new picture emerges there’s a
‘hold your breath’ moment of what terrible fate may await them.
This is stunning film that kept my attention much the way
Memento did the first time I saw it (hmmm, Polaroid connection?) and I think it’s
going to be one of the best of this festival season. It is powerful and
gripping, purely on the merits of the tale and the strong performances by the
relatively small cast. Absolutely make time for Time Lapse; if you enjoy genre
films you will not regret it.
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