Groundhog Day asked, “How would you engineer the perfect day, and -hence- the perfect date?” Time Freak took it one step further asking, “How could you eliminate all chances of a woman rejecting you?” The answer: an instantly reusable time machine. Like a quickie, but for time. Instead of concentrating on real issues like any genuine time traveler might, this one is set on pettiness and his ability to get the girl of his dreams to stay forever. It’s manipulative, sad, and sick when you think about it. And don’t worry, you will.
But it’s also funny. That makes up for it, right? No.
Science genius Stillman (Asa Butterfield, who looks like a Dr. Seuss drawing of a boy) is in love with Debbie (Sophie Turner), the world’s worst waitress. In the opening scene, the film’s “today” if you will, we get to see her say, “it’s over” to him more a dozen times. Why can’t you leave it alone, dude? Of course, if I had a time machine, would I leave it alone? Probably not.
Naturally, we’re immediately flung back a year to correct this outcome. It’s cool how easily Stillman manipulates time. All he does is hit some sort of rewind button on his phone app. (Hey, I want the time travel app, too! What? Not Android compatible? Is it really worth getting an iPhone? Hmmmm.) Also cool? Stillman’s scientific approach to their relationship. He has examined every.single.day in their year of couplehood and broken a few key ones down into fail moments – times where Debbie has clearly challenged her own perception of the relationship. What’s annoying is that Stillman can’t back off from a fail; he sees every fail as a challenge. He accepts that he’s gotten it wrong and thus solicits the company of bff Evan (Skyler Gisondo) to time travel with him. But he can’t ever take a loss or simply avoid the relationship-questioning circumstance.
For instance, say you’re, I dunno, 20 years old, and have a favorite movie that no one else feels the same way as you do about it … like, say, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. And after forcing all your friends to see Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, they all find it a piece of crap – and rightly so; it is a piece of crap. But you can’t let it go. You’re gonna re-live the scene until you find the scenario by which your pouty indignance and elitist putdowns at their reactions wins the day. Dude, it can’t be done. Instead of Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, just put in Raiders of the Lost Ark, ok? If they don’t like Raiders, trust me, you’re better off with a scorched earth policy for that friend group.
The problem with this film is not that Asa Butterfield can’t act. The problem is that he can. And he so consistently makes me believe that he is completely clueless when it comes to dating that I don’t want to see him be successful at it. The film also makes us live and re-live what a shitty friend Stillman is to Evan, which sucks because the one Evan-centric time manipulation rewind where the athletically challenged dweeb uses and re-uses and re-uses time travel to win his ultimate frisbee game is a laugh riot.
Time Freak is stuck in a world between aggravating and endearing. Stillman’s heart is in the right place and his head has given him the tools to act upon it, but when his head is challenged for reasonability, it gives up and orders out for pizza. I liked the innovation and some of the rewinds, but I couldn’t help thinking that I didn’t want Stillman to be successful because he wasn’t just manipulating one moment or one day of the relationship; he was manufacturing the entire relationship like some sort of choose-your-own-adventure book. If you had 1,000 chances each to re-live 100 different moments with any given person, you could probably make them love you, too, regardless. At the end of the day, however, you have to ask yourself if that’s beyond-the-pale shady. And on the manipulated end: even if you would gladly choose blissful life to life-full-of-anxiety, wouldn’t you insist upon having that choice rather than having a puppeteer control your destiny every day?
Time travel romance is the plight
Reworking moments through the night
Mediocrity holds sway
In remaking Groundhog Day
But maybe next time, they’ll get it right
Rated PG-13, 104 Minutes
Director: Andrew Bowler
Writer: Andrew Bowler
Genre: Love engineering
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Control freaks
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People with no tolerance for “man-splaining,” let alone relationship manipulation
