Aporia

However, the concept is good.

What if you could kill somebody in the past

• whose action kills people and turns people miserable
• whose immoral action turns people miserable
• whose simple action turns people miserable
• who simply turns you miserable

Such quandaries hold the potential to produce a fantastic film.

But we don't see their past, and how it could affect the present; instead, a different present simply emerges. It made the director and writer's job much easier, as they lack original ideas

The dialogues are considerably basic, and the scenes are even more so. Standing at the open fridge, pondering what to take out... There are so many pointless moments to fill the film.

The actors struggle with the non-adapted dialogues and non-working connections.

It's all so superficial, simplistic, almost parodying.

Wasting my time made me upset and I interrupted watching after about 10 minutes, but then I read about the topic and decided to give it a go.

It is not given a second chance.

I have the impression that this film wouldn't have the same charm if it wasn't super indie like it is. The story is about someone who invents a time machine and I imagine if there was money, this prop would be terribly sophisticated, the soundtrack would be present from beginning to end (something that really irritates me in Hollywood cinema) and there would be an all-star cast.

So, we have a well-known actress and others a little less so, but they don't do a bad job. I watched the film from beginning to end without getting bored at all, the story is well told and there are moments of tension and mystery. I would like to not reveal anything that would spoil the experience for those who haven't seen the film yet, but I repeat that it's not bad at all and I don't think anyone will regret watching it. It's a relief to watch a film that doesn't need the usual Hollywood gimmicks.

I'll save you the time: it has no resolution. I hate non-endings, open endings or whatever it is called when writers/directors can't commit to an ending. Don't know what to write as an ending? Let's make it super cool and make the audience figure it out!!! Argh. I am very much annoyed by these "endings", so I wanted to warn you so that you can skip it or at least have realistic expectations.

Imagine the ending of "The Good Son" where you don't know which kid the mom decides to drop at the cliff scene. That they just cut to her pondering her choices (unknown to you) at the end. Lame, right? Anti-climatic.

Pros: I really enjoyed seeing Judy Greer as the main character because I love her acting, but other than that, meh.

I love time-travel stories and I'll suspend belief in whatever you tell me the workings of the machine/ mind time travel entail. I did like the premise of it and found it interesting but with no ending, all the build up comes to nothing :(

This was an impromptu watch, so I had no expectations for it, decided to watch it when I noticed it was playing at the cinema. It took some time for me to figure out what the storyline was gonna be like. The film was off to a poignant start, yet its impact kinda sucked due to the lack of a gradual buildup that would've given an emotional connection with the characters. Even how Sophie was persuaded to take part in the subsequent events seemed too easily/quickly done. More so, the film fell into the trope where a computer-savvy character solves all these complex calculations or hacks in mere seconds which is always hard to believe.

Despite its intention to evoke emotions, the movie failed to establish a bond between me and its characters. The sci-fi elements lacked complexity and allure, with the core concept being hastily explained and while the plot itself was decent, the narrative suffered from a lack of depth and sentiment, causing me to feel detached from both the characters and the overall cinematic experience. That coupled with how the story progressed almost mechanically from one scene to another.

It was also pretty anticlimactic and it was difficult to see how the movie was gonna play out in the end; and that's not in a nice mysterious suspenseful way, it was just dull and I was waiting for it to end. Sure, the plot twist was a pretty big one but still too little too late. The film needed a deeper emotional connection to the characters, deeper exploration of its sci-fi elements, and deeper dive into the moral dilemmas they faced. Ultimately, it was the emotional weight that the movie most needed in comparison to the latter two aspects, leaving it incomplete in the most vital part.

The idea and twist on the conventional time travel genre was what interested me and ultimately kept me watching, but sadly, this film missed on a huge opportunity to capitalize on the concept. What follows is a meek, dull, repetitive - albeit though provoking story, that I felt was too aloof, riddled with plot holes, that asks too many unanswered questions.

The narrative kept spinning itself in circles but lacked finding more engaging material aside from the expected results. Plus I only found Greer's performance being the most nuanced, and not sure how or why Maadi was cast, as he was unconvincing, and I was constantly annoyed between trying to decipher his accent and seeing his backwards bowl short hairline-cut.

Additionally, the so called time machine wasn't convincing, and felt like an Inspector Gadget cartoon concoction put together from spare parts from a wrecking yard. So I'm not sure what film the critics saw that rated this so high, but I wasn't buying what the filmmaker was selling, and I surely didn't enjoy spending a slowly paced underwhelming 104 minutes to get such a lazy ending.