Earlier this week I saw 'PREDESTINATION' at the Cremorne Hayden Orpheum Picture Palace, and now I commend this film to you as amongst one of the best of 2014! This is truly an original, inventive, and innovative piece of film making by Queensland's Director, Producer and Screenplay writing Spierig Brothers, who have delivered us a gripping story, twists & turns aplenty, memorable performances, a visual feast and an intricate plot that will keep you talking and pondering long after the credits have rolled.
Based on the Robert A. Heinlan short story 'All You Zombies' and filmed in Melbourne, Victoria on a modest budget, this erstwhile film punches well above its weight. This is a Sci-Fi time travelling movie - but not as you know it! 'Looper' was the last decent time travel film I saw, and this bears no resemblance! This film is based in the past - the recent past - with the action never taking us beyond the early-1990's, with the bulk of the action occurring in the 1960's and 70's with the occasional jaunt 'back home' into the 80's. I won't be giving too much away when I tell you that time travel was invented in 1981 for the purposes of this film, as we are told in one line of dialogue.
The principal cast is Ethan Hawke (as 'The Bartender'), Noah Taylor (as Mr. Robertson) and Sarah Snook (as 'The Unmarried Mother') and the bulk of the action and dialogue is delivered by these three - all of whom are on fine form. Special mention however, must go to Sarah Snook who delivers a simply stunning performance that is sure to catapult her onto the radar of every Hollywood Casting Director from this film forward. Her performance is nuanced, brave and laid bare before us and the film is so much richer for it - simply put - she is brilliant!
And so to the plot! The film opens with a mysterious man attempting to diffuse a ticking bomb in an underground chamber somewhere in New York in 1975. This bomb we learn was set by a notorious bomb terrorist known as 'The Fizzle Bomber' and his actions continue to add to an ever increasing body count. During the attempted diffusing things go awry and our mystery man is injured and his face and head are badly burned. He wakes up seven or so years later in a hospital bed bandaged up, which when later removed reveal a reconstructed face (belonging to Ethan Hawke). We learn he is a 'Temporal Agent' - one of only a select few who are able to travel through time to alter the outcomes of certain events for a better future. He operates as part of a secret organisation under the watchful eye of Mr. Robertson - a sharp suited man, intelligent, dry, but also one of the select few! He has unfinished business with The Fizzle Bomber, which means he must go back to 1975 to prevent what has already occurred and in doing so save the lives of thousands of New York's citizens . . . but at what cost?
In going back he assumes the identity of a Bartender where he engages in a deep and meaningful conversation with a male patron one evening whom we learn is a writer of 'True Confessions' - pulp magazine fiction, under the nom du plume of 'The Unmarried Mother' (Sarah Snook). During this lengthy bar-set dialogue (which in itself is gripping) we learn of his back-story, and the key elements that must be deciphered to understand the twists and turns, the convolutions, the time travelling to-ing and fro-ing, and the possibilities surrounding the relationship between each of the three main characters. All of this will set your head buzzing with a visual and mental feast that will keep you guessing right up to the closing frames of the film, and thereafter as you debate the possibilities of what you have seen on screen.
To tell you more in this Review will be to give away too much - suffice to say this in intelligent, thoughtful, stylish film-making at its best, and one of the must-see movies of this year. I loved this film, and I am confident you will too!
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
