Time Lapse

Small budget , reasonably decent ... I watched it with interest , even though , most of the actions of the protagonists don't make too much sense ... Anyhow , passable one time watch !

A still camera that can peek ahead of time; is indeed a captivating idea, to begin with. On one hand, I feel obliged to show appreciation for the writer who has come up with such a tantalizing vision, on the other hand, I believe, the movie, on the whole, failed to give such a great concept a rightful shape & structure! It kinda falls short of attaining its full potential.

And the main reason was the clueless facade of a write-up that didn't seem to have any idea whatsoever on how to deal with such a tricky subject. Although it started on an encouraging note, putting together justifiable moments in the process that were loaded with palpable tension and suspense but then after a certain period of time, everything began to fall apart.

What started as a pretty straightforward Sci-fi, slowly turned into a familiar drama comprising of friendships, love, cheating; all the stuff that was nonessential, and uncalled for. Why would somebody resort to such paltry dramas where you've got one of the most intriguing concepts at your disposal, You have had a freaking time. Traveling camera for god sake. If only they were more pragmatic with their preferences, things could have turned out differently and that would have been in its favor as well.

Or maybe neither, depending on your view or perspective on the matter or characters that is. But you can't deny, that this movie (clue is in the title), is well thought of. You might not agree with all the twists and turns this takes, but it does so convincingly. Can you see a couple of things coming before our main characters spot them (no pun intended)? Of course you can. Still fun to watch though.

Which all comes down to a neat direction (for a low budget movie that is) and the stellar cast, that really do their best to convey a really "far out" idea. If you like Science Fiction Thrillers, that do use their head a little bit, you could do worse (a lot worse)

Well, not *unusually* stupid.

Why doesn't Jasper put up winning lottery numbers instead of race results? Thus, avoiding dealing with the bookie and his henchman? Because he doesn't.

They come up with this reasoning that they have to do what's in the photo of the future, else they'll die or something, which is rather dubious.

But it doesn't matter what their reasoning is. These people are experiencing a self consistent time stream. They don't actually change anything at all. They have no free will. They are automatons. All their thoughts, reasoning, actions are written in stone.

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I like it a lot and find it repeatedly engrossing. I've probably watched it at least ten times and am always sucked right into it.

I think the acting is great, even Ivan, the bookie. He's pretty funny, and it seems not everybody is sold on him, but he works for me. He DOES come across like he's acting, but that's because the character is acting like he thinks a bookie should act.

And for a low budget movie, the bulk of which occurs in one apartment, it looks great. I don't think it ever feels stale due to that, and that's no small feat.

My only complaint from that department is when they discover the camera (a nice prop). The three leads look over at it, and it cuts to an insert of the camera, which is obviously an insert since the characters should have been visible.

When you're the scriptwriter of a movie dealing with time travel, the easiest and cheapest way is to write a script built with protagonists as moronic as pathetic. Let's name them Callie, Finn and Jasper. Then, the plot twists will follow one after the other, at a frenetic pace, until Callie, Finn and Jasper ineluctably lost control like Juliet, David and Alex in Petits meurtres entre amis (1994). Although the first twenty minutes are rather encouraging, the last thirty ones are disappointing and almost appalling.