I'll Follow You Down (2014)

The sci fi mystery movie is a genre of film that is sadly almost non existent. So when they come along hopes are high, the likes of The Adjustment Bureau, Limitless, The Forgotten, all superb films. When I saw Gillian Anderson and Rufus Sewell heading this up I was so excited.Sadly one the hype had gone, and I settled into the film, I found it quite boring, the concept was huge, they could have done and gone anywhere, bit sadly we got too much melodrama, we could have had Einstein, we could have had huge scale events, but instead we got domestic goings on, so disappointing.Anderson was excellent as you'd expect, but the film was stollen by Haley Joel Osment, who was brilliant.It's not bad, it just fails to ignite.

This is a film that I honestly didn't see coming. For starters, it was a totally new concept (at least for me) to have a time-travel film that follows the people left behind by the time traveller, rather than the traveller himself. For a while I was disappointed to be missing out on the adventure, but the characters and events were compelling enough that I soon got sucked into an interesting and nuanced drama about loss and abandonment.And then, when I had almost forgotten about the time-travel angle, the son of the original time-traveller, now grown-up, travels back in time to visit his father in the past (where he's on his way to a visit with Einstein) and, without wanting to spoil anything, the method the son uses to convince his father to go back to the future was utterly unexpected.This was a film filled with subtlety, nuance, originality, and thoughtfulness. It was dramatic without being melodramatic. It was tragic without being depressing. It was intellectual without being pompous. It was adventurous without being mindless. It was science-fiction without being... well... science-fiction.And it was also very nicely made, with attractive cinematography, a pleasant orchestral score, leafy collegial locations, solid direction, and a respectable, talented cast.I didn't have any hopes or expectations when I started watching. But by the end I was utterly captivated and somewhat blown away by the originality of what I'd just watched. I love it when a movie does that, as it's a rare treat that doesn't come around very often.

Aka Continuum according to Sky TV. A reasonable premise, ridiculously dealt with and typical of USA productions, beautifully filmed to give a gloss that just isn't deserved. And slow! I had 3-cups of tea whilst watching, just to have something of interest to do. Imagine a Physics genius who invents a time travel machine in order to go on holidays,(dropping in on Albert Einstein for no good reason), without his wife knowing as she'd really rather stay at home. Little wonder Gillian Anderson committed suicide 1/2-way through - Surprised she could stand the boredom for so long. A starry cast having to deal with this crap: how I sympathise with the three main leads. Now, I have a much better idea than you watching the movie. Pick a wall in your house that needs decorating and buy good quality paint and brushes. Or a felt roller. Modern emulsions (and don't let your emulsions rum away with you - joke) dry quickly. No, not for painting over the many holes in the plot but just watch the paint dry, 89 minutes should do it. You'll thank me for this one day.

I'll Follow You Down is NOT a typical scifi-suspense-thriller. There are no automatic weapons or time cops. There is no high-tech research centre. There is in fact no "action" as delivered by most cinema these days, and only minimal, situationally necessary violence. The film is presented and paced like a stage play. The first hour (or more) is used to set the stage for the decisive events that occur in the final act, if you will. It is certainly slow-paced and "talkie," and calls the viewer back to another, earlier era in film-making. Honestly, the acting is not gripping, the characters aren't deeply developed, and suspension of disbelief in the technological ideas is difficult, if not impossible. Nonetheless, there is a level at which this modestly-budgeted made-in-Canada effort does succeed. That is, I found myself truly caring how everything would play out for the characters, and for how they would resolve their struggles with their dilemmas... which were mostly further losses following (minor spoiler) a father's disappearance early on. The themes were universal enough to be engaging. I'd say that the majority of the issues addressed were unstated, and the film's resolution of most of them was equivocal at best. The time travel theme has been much better developed elsewhere, yet, this film still had something, perhaps unique, to say. Finally, the "disappeared" father must face a stark dilemma, and the final minutes of the film deliver the moral of the story, which, if simplistic, did not ring false, at least in "this timeline." In terms of contemporary productions, an effort like Continuum develops a far more sophisticated and complex vision of time travel --- one that makes you stretch, and stretch again. This film doesn't do that at all, nor does it attempt to. The idea of time travel is really secondary to the primary and overriding moral theme. But... please allow me to conclude it like this: Had this been a stage production, it would in fact have worked --- and that is not easy to say for most ideas developed in science fiction film. This is a slow boiler for a quiet and contemplative evening, and not much at all like most other science fiction movies.