Timestalker

Quirky Brit dark-comedienne Alice Lowe follows her fine writer / director debut "Prevenge" (after previously co-writing "Sightseers") with the ambitious "Timestalker" whose quirkiness disappointingly so out-weighs its dark comedy that it flops, badly. She plays various re-incarnated ladies over several different centuries whose only similarity seems to be that while plagued by Nick Frost their obsessive love for Aeurin Barnard causes their death (as witnessed by Jacob Anderson & Tanya Reynolds). The ultimate point is perhaps known only to Lowe, which may not've mattered if the film was funny... but no it's not - so this is sadly a low for Lowe.

I love the concept for this, and I love the actors in it, but sadly it didn't work. Jacob Anderson shone in this, and his character was definitely the most interesting out of the lot, the rest were just there and felt really flat. The trailer made this seem like fun film, but I didn't find humour in it, and I think that is down to how it was edited and lack of music combined with a disjointed story that really weren't that interesting. It needed more depth for it to work, I don't mind the absurdity but it was just really flat and too disjointed. It's just boring, but with nice cinematography and good actors; it's a shame that the script wasn't up to par with that.

Alice Lowe did virtually everything in this quirky drama about the immortal "Agnes" who travels through time desperate to reunite with an highwayman (Aneurin Bernard) who robbed her sometime in the 17th century. Snag is - every time she manages to engineer a scenario when they can be together, she ends up dead! We reset, and moving steadily through time we encounter her in different guises and him likewise evolving, ultimately into a jaded rock star. Along the way, she is guided by the omnipresent "Scipio" (Jacob Anderson) who plays a role similar to one of Shakespeare's fools, by her maid/best pal "Meg" (Tanya Reynolds) and slightly bonkers husband (Nick Frost) as loads of daft adventures ensue. It's a sort of hybrid of Peter Greenaway meets Terry Gilliam this, with shades of "Monty Python" as the humour has a slapstick goriness to it that starts off quite funny but all too quickly runs out of steam. Indeed, this really is the problem with this, It's more of a short story that's been drawn out to fill ninety minutes. Once the point has been made and the joke established, it seems content just to shift the timeline and then tell us a similar story all over again. I did like the premiss, and there's no doubt that Lowe does have some good comedy timing at the start as her hate-hate rapport with her rakish husband is demonstrated, but Bernard was always more about his smile than his skill and sadly the whole thing just faded away. Zach Wyatt is quite entertaining as the dubious tarot reader but in the end it's too close to a rather weak farce for me.

What a wild film!

The synopsis drew me to the cinema, and the opening scene set the comedy in motion. Some of the audience gasped, some chuckled, but it made everyone pay attention.

The story progressed through the ages, with some wild ideas, and the final denouement was well hidden.

Cinematography was polished and effective, with surreal and 'period drama' scenes intermingled to keep you awake and alert.

As I came away, I was trying to make sense of the overall story and the macro level messages embedded in there, but to be honest, a second viewing would be more helpful, as there is so much happening that just needs to be observed before you can engage your brain to analyse the big picture.

I liked the sci fi notion that someone can be reincarnated and still in pursuit of a lover from a previous life. Asimov would have recognised the idea 'across space and time' The sets and scenes were just, well, good fun. But the end was satisfyingly modern in reaffirming girl power and challenging the idea that males rule.

Agnes (Alice Lowe) keeps falling for the wrong guy and getting killed for it. She leaps into another life in another time and repeats the process over again. Alice Lowe is the writer, director, and star of this movie. Obviously, this is her baby and it is a fun, ridiculous, mind-bending, time-jumping baby. It is a nice fanciful sarcastic take on love or failed love. I love Alice Lowe's pitiful look when bad things start happening to her. I would like more physical comedy to put this over the top. This movie may as well go completely ridiculous. This could have gone even further and get legendary.