Random Quest

28 February 2013. Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969) offered a similar but more mystery thriller suspense bent to Random Quest and its more extended psychological experiential focus. In some ways Random Quest takes the "if what" genre, like It's A Wonderful Life (1946) but instead of an Angel there is a black hole, alternative universe explanation. What brings this movie to life is a brilliant architecture display and ethereal musical score, along with some fascinating hypothetical alternative contemporary historical propositions that are on display in this movie.

The continuity, editing, shortness of the movie created some disjointed and abrupt character changes in the movie, especially during the earlier sequences. The very opening sequence seems a little out of the blue and confusing. Nevertheless, this parallel universe had more depth than say The Thirteenth Floor (1999) which again focused more an the thriller aspect than the qualitative relational theme of Random Quest.

This is a BBC production, so the technical aspects are as good as ever from the BBC, with good acting, sound, editing, lighting, etc. Sadly, the script lets the whole thing down, followed by direction that seems to insist on providing a glacial pace.

Alternate reality Science Fiction where a research scientist is mysteriously shifted from one universe into another parallel universe where much of his life has changed. Instead of exploring the scientific aspects of the swap, and comparing the differences between the universes, most of the film is taken up with creating/rekindling a relationship between the man and his wife in the alternate reality. It's sort of a Time Travellers Wife situation, or an amnesiac trying to reintegrate himself into his life.

And all of this happens at glacial speed.

So, drop the science fiction aspect, give the man amnesia and the story works just as well, and just as boringly. This film isn't about exploring the possibility of alternate realities, it's a film about ruined relationships and trying to piece them back together again.

If I wanted to sum this film up I'd say - Not As Advertised.

If you want a slightly surreal amnesiac romance story watch this film. If you want some decent science fiction, try watching The Terminator again.

Completely misses what made the original short story so magical: here, Colin Trafford finds himself in a completely different world, rather than the subtly different world of the original, and how he finds Otillie is completely different from the original: Wyndham's story, as written, is human, moving and believable - this version is cold, sterile and completely unengaging.

Colin is a research scientist who is working at a nuclear reactor as part of a team trying to simulate a black hole. The experiment goes wrong and the next thing he knows, Colin wakes up in bed in a white room in a strange house. Next thing he knows his "wife" has come home and he is dealing with calls from people he does not know. The few he does recognise seem to not know him in the way that that he thinks he knows them. Although it is a jump to get there, Colin concludes that the black hole experiment has forced him into a parallel universe and that his alternative has gone somewhere else. While this mystifies him, Colin also enjoys his new life and starts to build on it.

I'll be honest and say that when I read about parallel universes and jumping around between them I had expected more from it than this film delivered in the sci-fi realm. It doesn't really explore the concept from the sci-fi point of view but it does do it from a character point of view. This side takes the form of a sort of romantic plot where Colin tries to build a life in his parallel world while also figuring out what has actually happened. It is not as fascinating as it should have been though and discussions over the theory are mostly superficial and not followed through. What it does do well though is give interesting characters and a structure that suggests more mystery than there actually is. The ending is a "nice" conclusion but it is not that clever or impacting The writing does do a good job of building the characters and they are brought out well. West takes the lead pretty well and seems more comfortable with the story inside his character's head than the sci-fi element. Parkes is good in support but it was Ashfield's turn that made the emotional core of the story work – she was convincing even as her character changed. As director Watson does a good job of it and the locations were well chosen and delivered (how much for that house?! Probably too much…).

Overall though I did struggle to overcome the disappointment that the central sci-fi concept was not worked for more benefit. The relationship side of it did provide interest but it was not quite enough on its own and I would have appreciated more of the sci-fi worked into it; as it was it could easily have lost the parallel world aspect and still worked as a story about marriage being rebuilt.

Colin gets pulled to a parallel universe due to a particle accelerator accident. He then falls in love with the woman, Ottillee, that his parallel self is married to.

The pace of the story can be agonizingly slow as typified in one scene which has a long boring sequence watching him shave and dress. A similar paced scene is watching him explore his parallel house.

The romantic part is not so much slow as having too little. We do see several scenes with Ottillee partially dressed in underwear or nightclothes that take up a lot of the screen time that could have been better spent building the romance. It is not even clear why Colin chose to exert himself to repair the marriage that his parallel self has damaged due to negligence and infidelity.

The movie is also cluttered with an excess of scientific so-called theory. There is enough real science to obscure where the theory becomes pure speculation. The movie would have had better pace with less of it.

There is nothing extraordinary about the story, but it is good enough to at least partially make up for the slow development. Nevertheless, I'm a sucker for a love story especially if you throw in some sci-fi.