Needle in a Timestack

"Needle in a Timestack" should be viewed as a drama set in a science fiction background. If you think it's a science fiction film, you'll be bored. If you view it as a drama, it would be interesting, because it's about all the could haves and should haves in life. It is about the regrets and sorrows of life, and what you would do to change it if you could go back time.

This movie is before all a love story. A touching one. One that you can relate probably after you pass some age.

I liked the line "every love story changes the life lines of many people". This was the idea of the movie. It's unsettling. I also prefer to believe love is unique for everyone. That we all have a soul mate. But we may as well have more than one. Maybe one is more optimal than the other, maybe one is "a bigger love", maybe not. I don't know. Nobody knows. But we all know there is life after love and that life sometimes continues with another love.

So I think this is what the movie is exploting. Is it a good sci fi? Of course not. But it's a good love story. It's well executed. I like that it's slow and gentle. It has its own style and proper pace. I scrolled some of the slower moments, but as a whole, I think it's a good thing to watch. It poses interesting questions. The actors are good. The music is good. I like it. Maybe it's not for everyone, but to me, it has its charm.

Excellent adaptation of the Silverberg original. Be prepared to leave this movie in the same way Silverberg leave you as a reader for many of his stories. Which is to say the direction and production has done its job well.

The thing that impressed me the most is how realistic the future technology is. Very creepy in a Black Mirror way. It was a little slow, but NO WAY is it a 3.3 which is what the score is as I am writing this. I think that most people may see this as a love story, and this is how it seems at the beginning. But my interpretation of this movie is that technology is the antagonist here. No one can just live their life without someone interfering, and even though the message appears to be love will find a way in any circumstance, I see the real message is that technology that interferes by rewriting our past can cause a lot of pain and sorrow.

Needle in a Timestack (2021) is a movie my wife and I recently watched on Amazon Prime. The storyline follows a futuristic society where rich people can pay to go back in time and relive, see and experience other eras. Unfortunately sometimes they change the future, on purpose or by accident. Two men who used to be friends aren't so much any more after one of the friends marries the other's ex-wife. The rich friend is perceived to be trying to change the past to get his ex-wife back while the married friend is obsessed with the notion whether true or not which may be causing his marriage to fall apart.

This movie is directed by John Ridley (Cold Around the Heart) and stars Leslie Odom Jr. (One Night in Miami), Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire), Cynthia Erivo (Harriet) and Ulka Simone Mohanty (Soul).

This picture has a fantastic cast that is unfortunately under utilized. The movie has great dialogue and a unique premise. The characters are good and the circumstances are clever; unfortunately the overall execution is bad. There's too much focus on Odom's character looking lost and confused and not enough on the La Jolla friendship, the various back stories, and characters are used in an in-and-out fashion rather than a good mix of using them all together to understand the relationships, inner demons and why things are how they are. The ending is just okay and also could have been better.

This is a film with a lot of potential due to the great cast and premise but is executed poorly. I would score this a 5.5/10 and recommend watching once if nothing better is available.