Twice Upon a Yesterday (1999)

Unfaithful, out-of-work actor Victor is desperate to win back the affection of his ex-girlfriend Sylvia before she marries another man. He meets two very strange dust-men who turn back time and allow him another chance to correct his mistake. However, fate again plays a sour hand and Sylvia's best friend Alison's date, meet and fall in love .This time around Sylvia is the unfaithful one and eventually leaves Victor. Victor can't believe his luck until he meets the beautiful Louise. Is this Victor's destiny of does fate have more tricks to play.....If you can swallow the bitter pill that he goes back in time, becomes obsessive, paranoid, and overbearing, which will. Be his downfall, then somewhere in this movie, is a little Richard Curtis crying for help.Made in a time where doors were sliding, and Martha met three men whilst Hugh Grant worked in a book shop, If Only.. was the one that got lost in the mix.It's not very funny, in fact, at times, its downright depressing, knowing that this guy got a second chance, only for Karma to show up and bite him on the proverbial.But the cast are great, and make this little movie all the more watchable.And at the end of the day, he gets with Penelope Cruz anyway.

I wouldn't rent this movie. It's a complete wasting of time. Like a vacuum, the movie message just keeps sucking. The writer is persistently shifting the burden of his own psychological problems onto the audience's shoulders, and casually trying to push his old-fashioned beliefs of a 'fate' stuff into your mouth. Behaviour of protagonists is far from being natural, and everything rings hollow. Obviously, no one really loves anyone in this sombre dismal performance. (I actually have to add something, despite the fact that I said all. The reason of it is there is a requirement of 10 lines of the text as a minimum length for comments. I think this is not in a fair and good spirit of a web-site to make such a requirement since it violates the freedom of expression, like, I personally think I've already said what I wanted to say bout the film. ...Well, after I added this flame, I suppose there will be 'nuff lines to finally display my modest comment on the movie.)

This is a movie that has earned repeated viewings. A great pick-me-up or a wonderful "date" movie. My friends are wild about the world music soundtrack, Penelope Cruz is at her mousy best, and the feelings and situations are real... the magic is the gravy. Reminiscent of Groundhog Day and Sliding Doors. Yes, definitely reminiscent of those two movies.

Although my title hints otherwise, I rather liked this movie. A clever play on the fantasy of "if only I could go back in time, I'd do things differently" wish. The guy here does go back in time and things don't work out the way he wants. Anyway, the fatal flaw involves the casting. IMHO, when casting romantic comedies involving love triangles, casting directors need to follow the rule of HOTTEST ONE WINS when choosing actors/actresses to play off each other. In other words if a guy has to choose between two girls and the script calls for him to end up happy with one of those two, cast the hottest actress in that role. Same goes for guys. Otherwise, the audience will never believe the actor's choice. For example, consider John Cusack's High Fidelity. Faced with several hotties to choose from, Cusack goes back to the mousey blonde (whose name escapes me) and I was a bit sorry for him. Anyway, this movie obeys the rule of hotness first, but to its detriment. When Henshall's Bukowski spots Penelope Cruz's Louise in movie, it's game set match for Lena Headey's Sylvia (herself a stunning brunette) as far as we're concerned. There's no way we believe he's ever going back to Headey.That said, I liked it and would recommend it.