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Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel: Question 1) Why Wasn’t the Script Completed?
A review of the 2009 sci-fi comedy “FAQ About Time Travel” starring Anna Farris, Chris O’Dowd, Dean Lennox Kelly and Marc Wotton. Directed by Gareth Carrivick.
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I haven’t exactly been kind in my reviews of Anna Farris’ movies (see The House Bunny) but I do have a soft spot for The IT Crowd star Chris O’Dowd (see The Boat That Rocked) so I was determined to give this film a chance. Sadly, while very amusing, this extended sci-fi sitcom pilot does not deserve to be called a feature film.
Clocking in at only 83 minutes, this is short, even for a comedy film and yet it still manages to run out of steam before its abrupt conclusion. The jokes come thick and fast and incorporate visual comedy, witty conversation and ‘nerd-speak’ so all elements of the audience will be kept amused; one man in the screen I saw it at burst in noisy peals of laughter at any techie/Trekkie/’imagineer’ reference, so you can guess the movie’s main demographic.
The story focuses on 3 theme park workers, Ray (Chris O’Dowd), who is a huge science fiction fan (don’t ever say ‘sci-fi’ around him!); budding scriptwriter Toby (Marc Wotton); and cynical Pete (Dean Lennox Kelly, whom you might recognise from Channel 4’s Shameless) whose rather mundane evening in their local pub leads to cataclysmic events in the future, which they discover by hoping through a time leak which has sprung in the gents’ loo. Time travelling vixen Cassie (Anna Farris, sporting a remarkable number of hairstyles in a short space of time, most of them awful) steps in to lend them a hand, but as she is still in training, things don’t exactly go to plan.
If this sounds like a coherent story-line then I apologise for misleading you. The story starts off strong enough but it soon descends into an increasingly farcical series of ridiculous situations created by time travel paradoxes, which become ever-more far-fetched and unsatisfying as the unfulfilling ending draws closer.
In summary: great idea, decent script, it’s just a shame they didn’t bother to finish writing it before they shot and released the film!
4 Comments
Interesting – thank you
Thanks for the review, will now skip this movie.
Doesn’t it seem that the more a time travel movie tries to deal with the metaphysical consequences of such, the weaker it is?
Good review; saved me some dough. RB
this is very interesting…