If you were to
remove all of the spectacle of action and humor from Back to the Future and the mystery and intelligence of Donnie Darko, the remainder of what was
left would likely resemble all that is contained in I’ll Follow You Down. It is a cookie-cutter time-travel narrative,
utilizing nothing but the melodrama to tell its story. I can’t think of a more
straight-forward telling of a disjointed timeline, and the result feels like a
short film dragged out to feature film length. Because little happens in the
film, there is no need for impressive special effects or action sequences of
any kind. This is not always necessarily a bad thing, but it is noticeable in a
film void of any type of audience enjoyment.
This film also
marks a return to screen for former child star, Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth
Sense), who plays a physics student. Erol (Osment) displays intelligence that
rivals his professor/grandfather (Victor Garber), who brings him into his
secret experiment in order to discover the cause of Erol’s father’s
disappearance years earlier. The film doesn’t question the possibility of time
travel, as much as investigate the repercussions it would have on the current
timeline. By choosing to travel back to find his father, Erol risks losing the
aspects of his life that have worked out. As the film plays out, this decision
is made easier with a streak of losses, making filmmaker Richie Mehta’s
screenplay feel highly manipulative and predictable.
In the end,
there are only a few minutes of this film actually spent time traveling. The
majority of the 93-minute running time is invested in variations on the same
debate over the risks of attempting to time travel. This method relies far too
heavily on the repetitive dialogue and various montage sequences of generic lab
work. Most of the veteran cast members (including Garber, Gillian Anderson, and
Rufus Sewell) handle the clunky screenplay adequately, but Osment seems to have
lost some of that spark that made him an effective child actor. It is also
difficult not to notice the fact that he has put on some weight with age, which
can simply be uncomfortable to watch with previous images of a skinny little
kid stuck in head.
The Blu-ray
release includes a behind-the-scenes featurette, as well as deleted scenes and
a trailer.
Entertainment Value:
4/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 5.5/10
Historical
Significance: 2.5/10
No comments:
Post a Comment