Review of Time Lapse (2014) by Dangerfar — 13 Sep 2015

An interesting premise that somewhat squanders the philosophical quandaries that could be potentially drawn from it, Time Lapse is still certainly an entertaining movie with a nontraditional plot arc, which is in of itself good enough for a recommendation. It's first third is fairly sloppy, with cringe worthy writing and acting and bewildering camera work that almost had me wanting to turn it off. Thankfully it's able to recover significantly once it's done setting everything up and things begin to turn sinister. The second 2/3's of the movie have many moments of well-orchestrated tension, and it's never plain what will lie around each corner, leading the viewer to experience a near constant mix of surprise and suspense, a rare feat for any movie.

What it does well in suspense and plot it lacks in character development. The acting has a pretty wide range from terrible to good, but the characters themselves are flat and have motivations that essentially exist to serve the plot. No one feels real. As they begin to contemplate just how much control they have over their lives and feel like someones pulling their strings, so do we get the feeling they are only doing what they're doing because it makes for more interesting screen time.

And interesting it is. Perhaps not as interesting as it could have been though. For instance, the film skirts along the surface of exploring the nature of causality, but never really dives in. The characters just make broad assumptions that they shouldn't "cross" time, a dubious assumption to be sure, and thus disappointingly attempt to fulfill a predicted future rather than challenge the status quo. Thus some real meat is left on the bone as it turns out the premise, like the characters, exist merely to serve the plot and push it forward.

On the spectrum of time travel movies I'd put it somewhere above Triangle and well below Primer, probably around Looper or Coherence. It's an intriguing white-knuckled romp, but the frustrating characters and writing, uneven acting, and slothful first 1/3 keep it from greatness.