2009 mind warper
Rating: 15/20
Plot: A day of sailing goes horribly wrong.
I didn't have high expectations for this low-budget movie and that rating actually seems a little high, but with a clever time-loop narrative and references to The Shining and "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," this Sisyphean nightmare has an intelligence that makes it memorable. Writer/director Christopher Smith has about the dullest name you can think of, but there's nothing mundane about this movie's story, one that starts slowly but draws you in gradually as it feeds you all these intriguing clues. You won't know what's going on at first, and if there's a flaw in the early part of the story, it's that Smith doesn't really do much to make you even care. A lot of the first third of this movie consists of characters walking around a boat saying, "Hello? Hello?!" But there are some key moments--none which I'll give away since the less you know, the more fun you'll have--where you not only start to get it but can't wait to find out what happens next. The mystery of this one grabs you.
I'm not sure how much I want to think about this one, but I was impressed with the amount of work that others have put into interpreting and analyzing this movie. Here, for example, is a message board post on imdb, and it seems like the author put more time into it than I did any of my graduate work. I got a headache sifting through a lot of this sort of stuff and felt that I understood the movie well enough without any of that, but it's the kind of discussion that shows this off as a thinking man's B-movie. It reminds me a lot of Timecrimes or Primer, those time travel movies that, even if you don't like them, you can appreciate for the amount of creativity and thought that went into the storytelling.
It's not perfect. Things do start slowly, at least if you can say things ever start in a time-loop movie like this, and the acting and dialogue isn't always great. Liam Hemsworth is the biggest name in the cast; the rest are unknowns which is probably a good thing. I thought lead Melissa George was adequate even though her character spends a lot of the movie in this shell-shocked stupor. But the dialogue could have used some work. "God, you shot him! He said you shot him! You're a bitch!" is a terrible line no matter how you look at it.
This one's definitely worth a watch if these time-loopy things are your bag. There's suspense, mild horror, and touches of surrealism that drive a really interesting story.
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