“They killed his wife ten years ago. There’s still time to save her.” You might remember that as the ridiculous tagline to Timecop, a film in which we travel the circuits of eternity just to see Jean-Claude Van Damme do the splits. Thankfully for us, David Oyelowo has (far as I can tell) no background in gymnastics and does no time traveling of his own, hence Don’t Let Go plays like a less polished version of Frequency.
Still reeling from the travesty that was A Wrinkle in Time, Storm Reid plays it a bit safer here. Sure, there’s more time travel of a sort, but most of what she has to do here is talk on the phone and convincingly flee on a bicycle. Her fleeing needs work. Seriously. And when are you gonna hear that one again? When’s the last time you saw somebody who needed to flee more convincingly? No matter. Let’s set this up: Ashley (Reid) is the product of a duct tape home (it ain’t broken, but it ain’t exactly fixed, either, knowwhatI’msayin’?). As a result, she leans on her uncle, Detective Jack Radcliff (Oyelowo) for support.
Jack knows only too well how screwed up his brother is; hence, he’s deliberately attentive to Ashley, picking her up when she needs it, taking her phone calls at all hours, and completing the labor-intensive dot-to-dots on the paper kids menus at their favorite diner. It takes approximately two scenes for the average viewer to guess, “Something is gonna happen to her, isn’t it?” Sure enough, something does happen … a grisly multiple homicide. Dad dead, mom dead, dog dead, kid dead. Wait. Kid?! That’s not right. The only relationship we know in this film has now evaporated. Are we going to start over? Are we going to plow ahead and hope lonely Uncle Jack finds a new friend?
No. We are not going to plow ahead, which is both relief and dis-settling at the same time. After the murders, Jack starts getting calls from Ashley (?!) How would you react if you started getting calls from a person you know to be dead? “Man, phishing has gotten really sophisticated!” It takes a bit for David’s acting to settle down, but eventually he answers the phone and finds that it is indeed Ashley calling from the past. Ashley has no idea that it’s not the past and she’s actually now dead. OK, plot, you have my complete attention.
Of course, once you get the idea that David Oyelowo is getting calls from the past, (in my head) the punchlines just start flying:
“Hey David Oyelowo, last week called, it wanted you to know that it no longer cares how to pronounce your last name.”
“Hey David Oyelowo, last year called, it wanted you to know Gringo hasn’t sucked yet, but it will.”
“Hey David Oyelowo, last century called … there’s still time for you to be in Timecop.”
Don’t Let Go had a fair chance to succeed; I truly wanted to see if Jack could re-write history and save Ashley. However, the film spent far too long establishing contact between Jack and Ashley, and well into act three, Ashley still didn’t know what was going on. That seems a rather large error. After all, it’s not Jack’s knowledge that moves the plot; it’s Ashley’s. Look at any time travel film. The person that moves the plot is the one in the past, so the person in the past is the one who was to have perfect knowledge of the situation, or the closest facsimile; I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. How does treating the ghost of Ashley like a kid help her situation?
Oh, and the film got silly, too. The screenwriter must have figured that we were too busy fact-checking the Jack-Ashley connection to realize the murders didn’t make any sense. Oh well. Don’t Let Go an ambitious fail, but a fail nonetheless. Feel free to let go now.
The past has a mystery to crack
And relentlessly returns to attack
Yet this interlude
Leads one to conclude
The present wants its two hours back
Rated R, 103 Minutes
Director: Jacob Estes
Writer: Jacob Estes
Genre: Timecoppery
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Timecops
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Hardcore scientists
