Chronesthesia

I rarely write reviews of films, but this one is a gem worth recommending. Yes, it's probably a low budget indie film from New Zealand, but the acting is sufficient with the performance of the main character very solid. Why this film deserves a good rating is because the story is fresh, enjoyable, suspenseful, and satisfying...part sci-fi, mystery, drama, and comedy. Other reviewers have already summarized the plot. What I'd like to add is a message to the person wondering if this is worth watching tonight - if you enjoyed the film Dear Frankie, you would probably enjoy this film like I did.

Great performances, well made and with an extremely beautiful backdrop. I'm guessing this was a low budget project because when you don't have the Hollywood cash to splash on cgi and big stars etc then your movie needs to be story rich with believable acting which produces characters you really like and care about and this film ticks all of those boxes. Whimsical, wise and heart-warming, this is a wonderful way to spend ninety minutes and when it has finished, that is when you will start really thinking and you will start to appreciate it all the more. Outstanding effort, well worth the watch.

The movie is trying to create a mystery that never actually exists or convinces. It's misleading its audience with an idea that seems intriguing at first, but very early on in the movie fails to keep the viewer interested. Sadly the dialogues seem mostly stilted and the characters remain remote and unaccessible, it's not a movie that draws you in, it just ambles along. I wanted to like the movie because it is essentially about the attempt of finding your own love and finding someone else's in the process, but it fails to deliver on the basic level of making an emotional connection with the viewer. A rating of '5' is the best I can offer, it's just a mediocre movie that should have been told in a tighter fashion with more emphasis on a more cohesive storytelling, especially in the last 15 minutes. Actual time travel would have been good too!

This film is all about New Zealander Hayden Weal. He wrote, produced, directed and takes the lead, on screen almost throughout, and this is his feature debut. It has likely been produced on a shoestring budget and it's one of the film's best points that this isn't ever apparent - all departments doing a thoroughly professional job.

I didn't find this film so very wonderful, though it's better than a lot of high-budget rubbish coming out of Hollywood. When I wrote this, there were only five reviews posted, all by people who loved it, and I thought it worthwhile enough to add a bit of perspective. The best things: Weal seems to be good at everything. He's a convincing actor, with the rest of the cast all doing a good job too. His direction has a couple of glitches where things get unnecessarily confusing, but never for long and most of the time the pacing is fine and he keeps control of a complex plot. He also writes some great dialogue.

I wasn't so happy about the plot itself, and the main character, who dominates the film, is very irritating at times. He goes through the early scenes mostly just not replying when people speak to him - the kind of guy who, despite his good looks, would end up alone, watching TV or playing computer games. In this case he's very fortunate that several well-meaning people make determined efforts to get through to him. Once he sets his sights on Sophia, things do improve, with a likeable caring personality starting to emerge. He's somewhat inconsistent though, reacting differently for plot purposes in identical situations - as when one time he chases the mysterious stranger, who runs away from him, while another time, the two simply look at each other, then walk away with no word spoken.

As for the plot, it makes a kind of sense and mostly works in that its oddness keeps the film feeling fresh and interesting through most of the journey - often a feature of Australian or New Zealand cinema. However everything is based on a long series of coincidences, which go beyond unlikely to silly to ridiculous and sometimes give the impression that these half-dozen intertwined characters inhabit a cut-off village where they make up around half the population and that's why they keep meeting up around every corner turned. For this reason the film needs to be viewed as a fantasy or morality play, rather than anything anywhere close to real.

Right at the end everything sadly falls apart, all quirkiness abandoned for more piled-on clichéd coincidence as the director rushes to tie up every possible loose end. I personally don't like over-neat endings - though many others do. In this case it's just another reminder that the real world was never invited anywhere near this party.

I felt I should have got some message here, following the morality play interpretation, and perhaps there is something there for more perceptive viewers. The very obvious one, 'actions have consequences', which gets spread on very thickly, seems belied by that cliché ending, which suggests that things would end up that way more or less regardless of what anyone does or says. Two things I did take from this film though: Summer is definitely a cool person: and Beni really, really cannot play!

For the best depiction of schizophrenia yet seen in film, I'm giving this a 10/10. Why? Just watch it, it is accurate.

In this film, writer/director Heyden Weal shows us the inherent vulnerability created by the presence of psychotic illness, and also what is protective when a person is vulnerable. If you watched it and didn't get both of these, watch it twice. For the number of years of experience this film synthesizes and feeds to you like snacks with the movie, it is well worth the time.

In Australia this is distributed under the title "Love and Time Travel". Still a great movie under any name.