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TiMER (2009) - Schaeffer
http://www.impawards.com/2010/timer_xlg.html
Romance for Dummies
What if a company produced a bio-medical implant that could confirm your one true love? Even supplying the actual day when your two paths aligned. And just in case---love is blind, or if your stepping out of a crowded metro station or a football stadium, the simultaneous beeping of the wrist implants will lead you directly to your one true love and guarantee the connection. This is the premise of the film.
Unfortunately, a whole mess of other behaviors and problems flood into the vacuum created by absolute certainty---and the heroines family perfectly illustrates these polar opposites. Oona's (Emma Caulfield) wrist plate remains stubbornly blank and unactivated---although immensely popular and successful; some troglodytes still refuse to buy into the service: an essential service rendered for a measly monthly pittance! Which turns Oona into a serial dater of TiMERless men, and once there's the slightest emotional spark in their relationship, she drags him down to a local TiMER outlet to get implanted and confirm that he's the one. Which of course, sets him on the prim rose path to his romantic destiny and leaves her empty handed once again. And the darker implication that she may be destined to be an old maid.
I loved the quick throwaway (and often ironic) humour from Writer/Director Jacqueline Schaeffer. I'm actually looking forward to see what's she's going to do in the future---the girl's got mad skills. The premise is so rich it could have been spun in several different directions depending on the genre; for instance, the Romantic drama would have just run with the tragic love affair. The Science fiction thriller would have exposed what a crock the company's product was, etc, etc.
Although it doesn't really hit the dizzy heights of a dyed in the wool Rom Com; since it actually takes the time to explore some of the prickly questions of recreational sex; and the two principles don't quite convince us in the end, that this was their one great doomed love affair. TiMER is one of the rare Rom Com's that lingers on long afterwards because of it's ideas of predestination and fate.
TiMER ~
http://www.impawards.com/2010/timer_xlg.html
Romance for Dummies
What if a company produced a bio-medical implant that could confirm your one true love? Even supplying the actual day when your two paths aligned. And just in case---love is blind, or if your stepping out of a crowded metro station or a football stadium, the simultaneous beeping of the wrist implants will lead you directly to your one true love and guarantee the connection. This is the premise of the film.
Unfortunately, a whole mess of other behaviors and problems flood into the vacuum created by absolute certainty---and the heroines family perfectly illustrates these polar opposites. Oona's (Emma Caulfield) wrist plate remains stubbornly blank and unactivated---although immensely popular and successful; some troglodytes still refuse to buy into the service: an essential service rendered for a measly monthly pittance! Which turns Oona into a serial dater of TiMERless men, and once there's the slightest emotional spark in their relationship, she drags him down to a local TiMER outlet to get implanted and confirm that he's the one. Which of course, sets him on the prim rose path to his romantic destiny and leaves her empty handed once again. And the darker implication that she may be destined to be an old maid.
I loved the quick throwaway (and often ironic) humour from Writer/Director Jacqueline Schaeffer. I'm actually looking forward to see what's she's going to do in the future---the girl's got mad skills. The premise is so rich it could have been spun in several different directions depending on the genre; for instance, the Romantic drama would have just run with the tragic love affair. The Science fiction thriller would have exposed what a crock the company's product was, etc, etc.
Although it doesn't really hit the dizzy heights of a dyed in the wool Rom Com; since it actually takes the time to explore some of the prickly questions of recreational sex; and the two principles don't quite convince us in the end, that this was their one great doomed love affair. TiMER is one of the rare Rom Com's that lingers on long afterwards because of it's ideas of predestination and fate.
TiMER ~