Twenty minutes
into this movie, and I was wondering why I was asked to give it a chance. Soon,
the familiar setup of a man sharing a tale for a bottle of booze turned into a
time-traveling—or time-jumping—process that finally made me sit up and go,
“What the…?”
Everything about
the movie is crazy, and it gets even crazier as it wraps up, leaving you to
wonder about the huge mess a time loop can create. It also makes you ponder
whether such a loop can ever be stopped.
Based on Robert
A. Heinlein’s All You Zombies, the movie’s exploration of time travel
doesn’t come off as slick or gadget-heavy like other Hollywood time-travel
masterpieces. What this movie lacked in budget to create a high-class
time-travel film, it made up for with its story and directing.
The story starts
in 1970 with a time bomb ticking away. Our hero is trying to disarm the bomb
when the perpetrator appears behind him. The man distracts him long enough to
delay the timing, and when our hero returns to disarm the bomb and place it in
a container to contain the explosion, the bomb goes off.
The explosion is contained, but the resulting fire is too much for our hero,
and he’s badly burned.
He’s dying on the floor, desperately trying to reach his violin case. The case is brought to him, and he changes the timer on it to 1992 and hits a button. The next thing we see is him in bandages from head to toe. His face and body are badly burned, and after a face transplant and months of healing, he’s well again, now with a new face (Ethan Hawke).
He’s commended
for his work but is sent back in time again to start a chain of events crucial
to the time-travel bureau—a chain that leads to what he calls “a snake eating
its own tail forever in a never-ending loop.”
The person who
stole the show in this movie was Sarah Snook, who played both John and Jane.
Her portrayal of these characters was paramount to the movie’s success and the
critical recognition it received.
I haven’t seen many movies from these directing brothers, but I’m impressed by
how they took what could have been a flashy showcase of gadgets and turned it
into a wonderful story, stirred just right to deliver something truly
captivating.
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