I have a soft spot for Time Travel films. But then, I’ve mentioned that before.
Admittedly, they are remarkably hard to do right. Particularly if they’ve chosen to take the exceedingly difficult path of creating one involving multiple trips and lots of intersecting storylines.
Which is what we have here.
A young man with a promising future as a scientist has chosen to give up the more prestigious offers he got to help his disgraced scientist father with his project, an attempt to prove the existence of the Ether, based on some of Tesla’s ideas. However, it doesn’t turn out as expected and instead they’ve created a time machine.
But before they’ve fully grasped what they’ve done, his father pushes him into the machine and sends him back in time…
Which is when it starts getting complicated.
Now I have to admit, I love the setting of this film. It is set in a small Italian town which reminds me quite a bit of Moorhead and Benson‘s Spring. The film takes place in and around an old Italian farm, and a small town that twists around a steep, rocky hill, with plenty of dust and a scant covering of tough, dusty-green vegetation.
The script here is quite clever. I suppose some will insist on comparing it to Back to the Future, although I would be more inclined to compare it to the excellent Japanese SF comedy, Summer Time Machine Blues — or perhaps to the classic Heinlein story, “By His Bootstraps.” It is, yes, familiar territory, but, if we were honest about it, after more than a century of Science Fiction, most of the more interesting areas of the genre have been thoroughly explored.
But there’s more here than just a twisty set of crossed timelines or trippy questions about determinism: at the heart of the story is the troubled relationship between a young man and his estranged father, and, ultimately, the sacrifices they are willing to make for each other.
This is the first film from Italian writer/director Ciro Sorrentino, who chose to make Time Perspectives in English — and created a script so well written that I would never have guessed that English wasn’t his first language.
This is a solid and well made film with a lot of interesting twists, a fair share of surprises, some nice details, a good underlying message — and a sudden zing at the end.
You’ve got to admit that that is a pretty good start.
And with a little luck, maybe this won’t be his last film.
rivets on the poster 