Review of Displacement (2016) by Jason P — 05 Jul 2018

This movie was a big undertaking. We follow the main character, Cassie, through confusing shifts in reality, as she (and we) slowly piece together what is happening to her. With a very large budget, very good actors, and a much better director, this movie could have worked. Unfortunately, this movie didn't have any of those.

I enjoy movies like this, like the Borne Identity, which unravels a complicated plot and draws us into the star's life. But this movie didn't have that "it" factor. It's subject matter being so complicated, we needed a believable cast and realistic decisions that didn't confuse the audience, since it is hard to follow the timeline and the scientific explanations. The confusion really increased as the movie came to an end, and to be honest, I'm probably going to have to watch the movie several times in order to follow the entire sequence of events. Again, to be honest, I'm not going to watch it again because it wasn't that good.

The movie was very poorly directed, and the actors seemed to be confused as how they should react in many scenes. In one scene in particular, Cassie's father runs across the room, desperate to stop her from destroying an item, but doesn't make it to her before she does so. His reaction is so incredibly unorthodox; he responds as if she has just told him that she forgot milk at the store!

Why are there criptic notes in all the places Cassie goes to, in her own handwriting? Who else is reading these notes that they have to say the same thing and be such a short phrase? An entire personal letter could have been left on the bathroom mirror, but only 3 words were ever written! The smartest person since Einstein also smokes pot and drops acid, and she changes the world by writing her thesis. Yes, a thesis! For her masters degree! Other questions: How did this brilliant student get mixed up with a 2-bit auto mechanic and thug? How did her other love interest know everything that was supposed to happen with each time shift? And just how, pray tell, did Cassie change the entire world by running a computer program on her laptop, from inside a cheap hotel room?

With the selected negatives out of the way, I will admit that I watched the entire movie. It wasn't so bad that you want to turn it off, because the subject matter was interesting. So it's not turn-it-off bad. It's also not foul-mouthed like a lot of movies these days. There were also a few ideas about Cassie that was forced by the need to give information to the audience. What was the choice? Cassie is a vlogger, and is vlogging all about her experiments online, so that anyone can see and hear. Let's just hope all the other Cassie's aren't doing the same things.