Review of TiMER (2009) by Kenneth L — 15 Feb 2012

This is a surprisingly involving sci-fi romantic comedy. It was made with a relatively low budget, and you can kind of tell, but it more than makes up for that with a genuinely intriguing premise and some believable characters.

The movie is set in a science-fiction world whose only difference from our own is an invention called "TiMER." The "TiMER" is a little digital clock people can have implanted into their wrists that ticks down to the day that they are supposed to meet their "soul mates," whom they are then destined to marry and live with forever. The main character, Oona (Emma Caulfield), is approaching 30, and is getting worried because her TiMER hasn't started ticking yet, meaning either that she has no soul mate, or that her soul mate doesn't have a TiMER himself. The movie follows her relationship with a grocery-store checkout guy whose TiMER is due to go off in four months (John Patrick Amedori), as well as telling the story of her stepsister (Michelle Borth), whose TiMER won't go off for years.

The movie succeeds in good part because of its likable cast. Emma Caulfield is sympathetic as Oona, whose exasperation at life is quite understandable. Michelle Borth is very funny as Steph, Oona's devil-may-care stepsister, who gets most of the movie's specifically comedic scenes. John Patrick Amedori is pretty touching as the somewhat naive but sincere young man Oona starts seeing. JoBeth Williams (from Poltergeist) nails a sense of upper-middle-class privilege and pretension as Oona's mother.

Because of its clever premise, the movie actually manages to get its characters into interesting philosophical conversations about relationships and certainty versus indeterminacy. The conflicts that arise from the TiMERS are so much deeper and more interesting than the contrived, stupid conflicts you get in your average D-grade, Matthew McConaughey/Kate Hudson-style romantic comedy. What stands between the characters and happiness is not a set of unlikely circumstances, but rather their own ideas about life. You find yourself really pondering the implications of the possibility of such certainty, and whether such a technology would really be desirable or not. The movie, written and directed by Jac Shaeffer, shows real invention and some serious thought. There is definitely a low-budget-y feel to it, and a couple of early scenes feel stilted and awkward, but the movie finds its groove soon enough. If more romantic comedies were as inventive and thoughtful as TiMER, we'd be better off for it.