Time Month - Mini Review: Synchronicity

It’s Time Month

And we’re looking at Synchronicity

Released in 2015 to say this had mixed reviews is… yeah, it’s about accurate. I really don’t have a lot of information about this one. Let’s just take a look.

OK, the story follows Jim Beale who has purportedly created a form of time travel using a highly expensive isotope. He meets a woman named Abby who, despite some suspicions, she is clearly attracted to him. Hijinks to follow.

It’s difficult to summarise this movie without going plot-point by plot point but you get the gist of it.

This movie, despite the draw of time travel this doesn’t really feel much like a sci-fi movie, the story revolves largely around the relationship between Jim and Abby. Sure, there’s technical stuff in the movie but it’s actually quite rare you see actual science fiction on display.

Acting-wise, it’s well done, this movie, whilst clearly low budget wasn’t as low budget as some of the movies and had some people in it who could actually act, including a good few minutes from Michael Ironside, the best Darkseid there will ever be and I don’t care who voices him in Young Justice.

Cinematography-wise, everything’s very dark in this movie, not just the overall tone, although that is dark too but the lighting looks pretty poor in most locations and much of the outside stuff is at night-time. I suppose this helps the atmosphere but I would’ve preferred some better lighting and a few more daylight scenes.

What about the story itself? Well, from the scientific level, there are some interesting ideas on display here. Some amounts of pre-destination vs free will are explored, the consequences of paradoxes and we have an explanation that involves parallel dimensions, I’ll get to this.

The problem I see is there doesn’t seem to be a lot of direct involvement by John over his ‘past’ self. There’s a point where Michael Ironside forces Jim to give nearly all of his research over in exchange for a flower. I felt like there could’ve been some intervention here especially since he acknowledges that he was royally screwed over. Instead the only changes he makes are trying to split him and Abby up, until he changes his mind and finds out new intel.

Not a lot really happens in this movie, in fact from the second act it’s an alternate retelling of events from the first act with a few gaps filled in and a few minor changes to indicate it’s a parallel universe. You can tell this was structured into the plot to save money. It isn’t a particularly engaging story in my opinion.

However, I will give a thumbs-up to this great bit of foreshadowing. I’ve mentioned that his time travelling is related to parallel universe. The guy serving drinks in the bar is a different actor the second time around. You’d likely never notice because he wasn’t in the movie very long, keeping the surprise.

But ultimately, this movie fails to engage, the romance is relatively generic and the business is barely worth listening to. It’s not awful, but it’s not for me.

Rating 40/100