Time Lapse (2014) – Review

Just as light can’t escape a black hole, us people really can’t get away from the forwards movement of time. There isn’t any convincing evidence that time travelers exist, but that doesn’t mean we don’t dream about it. That has resulted in interesting books, TV shows and movies which I, no matter how bad they are, enjoy checking out. Time Lapse had been on my to watch list for a while and even though not everyone was positive about it, I was curious.

Finn (Matt O’Leary) works as a concierge in an apartment complex. He also lives in the building and shares his apartment with his girlfriend Callie (Danielle Panabaker) and Jasper (George Finn), who is addicted to placing bets on dog races. When they realize that they haven’t seen one of the people who lives in the complex for a while they decide to enter his apartment and find him, dead. They also discover something else, which surprises them: A big camera which is pointing to the window of their apartment and makes a picture of it every day at 20:00. What’s so special about the pictures it takes, is that what you see on it hasn’t happened yet, but will the next day. The three discuss their discovery and decide the man who was using this machine probably has died because he tried to do some different than what he saw on the pictures of him doing. They will make sure that each day at 20:00 they will assume the exact position as shown in the photos.

But can they influence what is shown? They turn out they can and the think of a way to get rich. They will stick the results of the dog races on their window and they see on the picture that they did. Initially they are euphoric because it’s extremely easy to make money, but as time progresses unexpected issues arise. Issues which force them to take action.

 The concept of a camera which shows pictures from the future is a fascinating one, but it when applied to a movie you do already know what the characters will do. The movie tries to add some intrigue to make sure there is suspense and unexpected situations do occur making it not as predictable as you’d suspect. And even though that initially works, director Bradley King doesn’t succeed in keeping that up for the complete running time, making the things which happen towards the end too unbelievable. The limit is stretched just too much. The actor in this aren’t really memorable, which doesn’t help convincing the viewer to care about what happens to them. So this might not bet he best movie which plays with the concept of time, but for fans of the genre this might be a nice distraction.