Timestalker

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.

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.

Timestalker 2024 written, directed and starring Alice Lowe.

That's Alice Lowe of Sightseers fame, in which Lowe is the muse and forces her boyfriend to do ghastly acts. Sightseers is one of my favourite films of all time. Lowe is also the writer and star of Prevenge , the gory and funny film about the unborn baby of Lowe's taking over the host and compelling her to do ghastly acts.

So I think we know what to expect? Or do we?

The film has been pushed by a plethora of free tickets, so I hope it isn't so bad that the free tickets are the only way to get bums on seats.

Any way back to the film ... there was a lovely introduction by Alice herself, letting us all know that we could have a laugh if we wanted. Although the laughter wasn't compulsory she advised.

The premise of the film is Lowe's quest for her one true love over time, alas her love is unrequited. Lowe coming to an ultimately end before her bequeathed was often aware.

Jumping through the centuries, the 80s being the funniest with an Adam Ant lookalike being the object for Alice's affection. The actors throw a few good dance moves, name check to Propaganda's Duel sounding great over the cinemas sound system.

There's some funny moments, but overall it's a bit disjointed and might work better as a tv series, featuring the time stalking over more detailed half hour segments.

That said it does come across a bit like Highlander in its time travelling across time periods.

Oh I forgot to say I did laugh a couple of times, initially after the first ghastly death, but it did peter out after that .

Sorry Alice

6/10.

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.

Agnes (Alice Lowe) has lived many lives, in 1680s Scotland, in 1790s England, in 1840s Britain, in 1980s New York, and more. And in every life, she meets the one man (Aneurin Barnard) whom she is destined to be with - but just as they are meeting, something dreadful happens and she dies. Until she meets him again in the next life, that is....

Alice Lowe wrote, directed and stars in this film, which is quite funny and which has lovely supporting characters played by Jacob Anderson, Nick Frost and Tanya Reynolds, who like Agnes all have just one name throughout the film (unlike the love of her life who goes by different names in each incarnation). You might think the premise would get a bit repetitive over time, and it does, but there are enough differences of setting and methods of living and/or dying that those repetitions didn't bother me. If you believe in reincarnation and love as destiny, then this movie is for you; if you don't, you'll understand why the film is titled as it is. Recommended.