by Mike Hilty, Contributing Writer
I listen to a podcast called Romancing the Pod. It’s three film lovers chronicling romantic comedies and love stories in movies. Each week, one of the three picks a movie to watch, and they use the podcast to offer a recap of the movie, pepper in some fun facts, box office information, and sprinkle in comedy, jokes, and personal stories. One of the podcasters, Mikey, picked a theme for the summer with his picks: time travel love stories.
Needle in a Timestack would have fit in nicely with his theme. Not because it’s a quality movie but rather the movie is a little off the rails.
Needle in a Timestack, based on the short story by Richard Silverberg, follows the story of Nick (Leslie Odom Jr.) and his wife Janine (Cynthia Erivo). When Janine’s ex-husband Tommy (Orlando Bloom), travels in time to break the them up, Nick must figure out how to get back to Janine and what it’ll take to fix everything. I have not read the short story so I have no idea how Silverberg’s story translates from page to film. What I saw on film without any context from the literary version, though, is a love story I’m not sure I believe and a sci-fi concept that never quite lives up to its potential.
The first lines in the movie and involve love being a circle. The love story between Nick and Janine is the central storyline. We see how they met, the evolution of their relationship, and years into their marriage where issues are coming up. Odom Jr. and Erivo, whether it’s a product of the script or directing, are very wooden and don’t display a lot of emotion. I get they’re supposed to be in love; however if I’m forced to put together a love story from the limited amount of time I’ve seen on screen for them, I didn’t see anything or learn anything that made me buy them as a couple. In fact, to double down, Nick is not someone I’m rooting for to have a happy ending. He has a lot of trust issues, is never truly satisfied in his relationship, doesn’t really listen to anyone (especially his sister Zoe (Jadyn Wong), arguably the MVP of this movie), and resorts to desperate measures with time travel to fix everything.
Time travel is a complicated idea to crack for film. There are so many issues that could come up and complicate matters that often it falls into two camps: either it’s an overly complex idea and there’s an instance where the rules are broken for a reason and there’s a magic way out, or It’s an overly complex idea that isn’t explained well and there’s a hope that the audience just goes with it and turn your brains off.
Needle in a Timestack falls into the second option, where it’s a complex process and doesn’t have a whole lot of explanation. Time travel in this world seems like it’s a tourist attraction similar to how space travel is going to become for us. It’s mainly for the rich or the desperate-to-live-in-the-past crowd. There are some rules if you travel back in time, but not a whole lot of consequences if you break any of them. Moreover, they double down on technology to help you recover your memories, should there be a shift in time. It’s almost as if instead of regulating time travel, they’ve grown to accept the consequences and have just learned to live with it.
I do wonder if the short story goes into this more about how time travel works. The sequences when time is changing are really interesting and visually great. I also wonder if they go more into Tommy’s character, who looms large through the film as the catalyst for the film’s event. Bloom is doing what he can with this, but he doesn’t get enough screen time for me to buy anything he does. They try to explain more about him just through conversation, but that’s all a matter of perspective, and the attempt to humanize Tommy fell flat. None of the characters are developed enough for me to care about what happens to any of them. I may have to give the short story a read to compare. However, if this was a standalone story, there would be a lot left to be desired.
The question then becomes if this short story has a dedicated fanbase, who else could this movie be for? It won’t really do it for the romance movie fanatics, nor is there for the science-fiction crowd who want a complete story. I can’t even see fans of any of the actors really liking this movie. Odom Jr. and Erivo don’t even get a chance to sing together (missed opportunity, even if it wouldn’t make sense for either of them). The only two performances that are given a chance to shine are Freida Pinto’s character Alex, who is playing a former love interest of Nick, and Wong. They are the only two who show any sense of emotion that doesn’t feel forced, and even Pinto isn’t given the greatest amount of range. Unfortunately, both of the issues with story and acting might fall under the same person, John Ridley, who wrote the screenplay and directed the movie. The short story might also fall under the category of “too many issues to film,” so I don’t know who’s ultimately at fault.
This will not be one of those movies I full on regret seeing. As joyless as this movie felt sometimes, there was enough to keep me interested until it ultimately fell flat to the point where I lost focus. I even tried rewatching it to see if I was missing something, but it failed to change my views. If you’re looking for a time traveling love story, check out About Time instead. If you’re looking for a quality movie, I don’t think you’ll find what you’re looking for with Needle in a Timestack.
Grade: C-
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