By: Addison Wylie

The manipulation of time can lend itself to enticing stories and conflicted characters.  Time Lapse would’ve delivered on both of those, but filmmaker Bradley King’s melodramatic presentation robs the audience of anything intriguing.

Time Lapse wisely keeps its narrative between three leads.  Those roles are filled out by Matt O’Leary, Danielle Panabaker, and George Finn who all appear and act as if their characters should be a few years older.  Those close-knit friends stumble upon a machine that provides a special photograph every day.  It’s a look into the future.

King and Bp Cooper’s screenplay deals with themes of dependancy and paranoia involving this new contraption, as well as how persuasive greed can be when the outcomes are easily controlled.  But then, a laborious plot involving a cutthroat bookie crashes in.  King and Cooper apply the aforementioned morality debates towards twists and turns that are overacted and routine, giving the film a manufactured essence.

Time Lapse is also insufficient at feature length.  King’s movie has enough juice for a short film, meaning a lot of the screenplay’s drawn-out thoughts take on an existence suggesting they’re only here for filler.

The filmmaker stays within the small scale nature of his science fiction, and stops himself from overreaching.  This is a minor victory for Time Lapse.  However, everything else is a drag.

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Time Lapse has its Toronto premiere at TAD on:

Tuesday, October 21 at 9:30 p.m. @ Scotiabank Theatre

Realted Links:

For more information on the festival, visit the official TAD webpage here.

Buy tickets here.

TAD Coverage:

Wylie Writes reviews ‘Wolves’
Wylie Writes reviews ‘Suburban Gothic’

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