Il paradosso del tempo

Excellent and often strange look into our human lives and how time impacts them, the fear of death, and what is worth spending our time doing.

There's a slew of films lately that seem to be exploring motherhood in a smart SciFi manner. This is one of them. Mary Louise is a mom who is at the end of her life questioning what was life's meaning. There the movie takes a heavy magical SciFi tone that is more dedicated to symbolizing our struggles with significance than saying anything scientifically significant.

This is a great framing device and gimmick. Everyone seems to be handling the script well and it keeps a sort of charming patter as we discover why motherhood is the purest form of immortality.

Solid movie worth the suspension of disbelief to watch.

A very tedious movie with a theoretically interesting premise, but super badly executed. The problem is not with Marie Louise Parker who acted soporifically beautiful, but with the whole ensemble cast, family and especially that "partner" of hers who was terribly chosen. The professor was the better and more interesting character with little screen time.

That's not a sci-fi movie, that's a philosophical drama with an ounce of science-fiction.

• Screenplay/storyline/plots: 5
• Production value/impact: 4
• Development: 7
• Realism: 4
• Entertainment: 1.5
• Acting: 6
• Filming/photography/cinematography: 5.5
• VFX: 3
• Music/score/sound: 4
• Depth: 6
• Logic: 2
• Flow: 1.5
• Sci-fi/drama: 4.5
• Ending: 3.

First off, let me give an honest up front detail about my review process: This film is really a 7.5 to me, but i rounded up instead of down like i usually do, because i feel this movie is trapped between a rock and a hard place.

This is NOT an action, or adventure film, at all, like most big Sci-fi. Kinda barely even a sci-fi film, I prefer to call it Speculative Fiction, but most of all its a drama, while also not being exactly what that implies. This movie isn't a "Family drama" but it does focus in on familial bonds, its definitely not a comedy, but it stars relatable comic actors who inject a bit of levity into the situations. Its not any of those genres But it has elements of them all. (except, to be clear, action and adventure).

To me this belongs in a genre I really love that I'm calling "Meta-Modern Speculative Fiction", and the easiest comparison is basically ALL the films of Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Synecdoche NY, Being John Malkovich), but others that I've loved are: Visioneers, Donnie Darko, Southland Tales, Sorry to Bother You, The Lobster, Poor Things, Get Out, Nope and the Tv Shows Legion, The Last Man on Earth, Maniac, I am a Virgo, and Devs. I could list a ton more but im getting away from the point.

All this type of media tends to take a Speculative fiction concept, usually with some surreal mystery/thriller element, and apply those to a character drama, with a philosophical and/or psychosocial tone. They tend to defy genre convention by combining Elements of those genres and others, and an often wildly oscillating emotional undertone, conjuring disparate negative and positive associations along the way.

In this case its mostly a time travel character drama, a little mystery thriller, and a peppering of other momentary vibes. It obviously shares a lot of tropes with Groundhog day but it tackles those in a totally different way that fans of Time Travel narratives will appreciate because it compresses a lot of the classic moments with clever editing techniques that fans of film editing will also love.

Give it a watch if that sounds good, and if you already but you were expecting a different movie, please don't rate it poorly because it didn't match expectation, a lot of people like me want to see movies like this, and when the weirder movies tend to get downvoted due to being misunderstood it just gets tougher to find and support films like this.

I am such a sucker for a good sci-fi movie especially when it involves time travel. The setup and conundrum you get within the first 10 minutes. You only have to listen to the doctor giving Zoya her prognosis to understand that we are going to be stretching reality a little bit so enjoy the ride. The use of the Groundhog Day time travel concept is not original. The use of it to save a life is not original. The message that it presents about parenthood and the choices one makes along the road of life however are wholly its own. Beautiful storytelling and the characters are well rounded and multi dimensional. As a fan of fantasy storytelling mixed with sci-fi tropes I loved it and recommend it wholeheartedly.

Yet another twist and turn on the original Groundhog Day 1993 (on my IMDb list of all-time greats). Here writer/director Bernardo Britto takes advantage of Mary Louise Parker's considerable abilities at relating to audiences, and making even the commonplace seem uncommon. Parker, who did many femme fatale roles in her younger days, has legitimate skill in comedic or semi-comedic roles (for example, RED 2010) -- making her a solid choice for the role of a world-weary woman with a fatal illness somehow caught up in a time loop, and reliving the same week over and over. (Parker is 60 playing a 55 year old). Yet, as was the case with Bill Murray in GROUNDHOG DAY, the story is less about the mysteries of the universe and more about the mysteries of the people we share the universe with. The almost 2-hour romp may not be something you will remember for the rest of your own days -- although it definitely has aspirations along that line. But it does entertain while it makes you ponder. Recommended. ((Designated "IMDb Top Reviewer." Please check out my list "167+ Nearly-Perfect Movies (with the occasional Anime or TV miniseries) you can/should see again and again (1932 to the present))