Time and Again (2007)

Absolutely Brilliant!

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

How do I rate a film that I don't even believe exists? "Time and Again", the beloved novel from the 1970's by Jack Finney, was never made into a movie, despite a number of ill-fated attempts over the years. The latest I saw was to be directed by Doug Liman after he finished the Tom Cruise/Emily Blunt sci-fi film; before that, it was Robert Redford. There was even talk at one time of Spielberg being involved. At one point, there was even thought of it being a Broadway show. "Time and Again" is one of my favorite books that I have read a number of times. I would love to see a movie of it; I just wish that it actually existed at this "time".

It is a nervous and exciting thing to see a film on the screen in a space so familiar to your life as your own house. I grew up in "the crazy aunt's" house in this movie. It was surprising to see how the floor plan of the house as it was in the movie changed from the way it actually is in real life. People would run through doorways and come into "the next room" only to be somewhere completely different, or they would come running down a stair case from a room that wouldn't make sense with where they had supposedly come from. Ahhh the magic of film huh? As for the movie itself, I give it a high 6 to a 7 out of 10. It was better than I expected overall, however its always hard to get good acting out of a child and some of the lines seemed a little rough/weak either in their delivery or just in the dialogue. Its one that definitely does make you think. The plot is good but the character development would need a lot of work to turn this one into a theatre production. Besides, its only 1.5 hours--clearly made for TV.

**SPOILERS** Confusing as well as mind bending past altering and time travel story that has to do with this cockamamie music box that whenever its opened and plays its tune strange things begin to happen to the person who activated it. The movie "Time and Again" tries to be mysterious in it starting off six months into the future from the events that we'll soon be exposed to. We see poor and totally confused Anna Malone, Brooks Burns, being interrogated in the police station about something that she did which can put her behind bars for a long long time. As the movie slowly unfolds we start to get an idea of what Anna was involved in that put her in the predicament that we find her in and it has to do with this music box that she found hidden her her late Great Aunt Helena's house.We get to see that Anna is filled with guilt over the deaths of her husband and daughter Neil & Chloe, David Ingram & Erika-Shaye Gain, in that she forgot to bake some home-made cookies for them that had both Neil and Chloe drive to the nearby bakery only to end up getting killed in a car smash-up. As we're trying to get a grip of what Anna is going through in her depression over the deaths of Neil an Chole she receives a visit from this lawyer James Elliott, David Franco. Elliott tells the shocked and surprised Anna that she inherited the house, as well as the seven acres of land around it, of her recently departed Great Aunt Helena Bruckner whom Anne never even knew existed.It's when Anna is cleaning out Great Aunt Helena's home that she finds under lock and key this lock-box that has, after she bangs the lock open, this antique music box that turns out, according to her antique dealer friend Susan (Morgan Bryton), to be worth a small fortune. It also later turns out that the box is cursed and whoever plays with it, like her late Great Aunt Helena, ends up losing their mind. It's not until Anna runs into the somewhat simple-minded handyman Billy, Paul Anthony, who offered to help her renovate the house that she got an idea of just what this strange box is all about. What she finds out is so unbelievable that it takes the rest of the movie for Anna to realize what a danger it represents to not only her but even Neil and Chole who, at least up to that point in time, are no longer around to be effected by it.The movie "Time and Again" is just like it's title says in that time and again were subjected to a number of unrelated events where the persons in them, like Anna, switch sides from being a victim to being a victimizer. You get the feeling that the film is suffering from a bad case of film-editing where those who made it seem to have no idea of just what they think the movie is supposed to be all about. Billy the Forrest Gump-like handyman tries to warn Anna to get rid of the box, that we learn from him was the work of the Devil, before it drives her to go insane. But being who he is a simpleton who also has a very serious speech impediment he's only treated with benign contempt by Anna only with her later realizing that he, despite his trouble communicating, was right on target in what he was telling her.Anna disregarding Billy's warning about the box uses it to bring back both Neil & Chloe only to have herself arrested by the police for kidnapping her daughter, where in fact she was the person who rescued Chloe from her kidnapper. Ann is now faced with either a long jail term or stay in a mental institution with the events of both Neil and Choles return from the dead being turned upside down in the dirty tricks the evil box is constantly playing on her.The ending is a total downer in that Anna comes full circle in reliving the accident that took both Neil and Choles lives and we're, together with Anna, forced to go through the same scenario only to have some kind of surprise ending. That after you've seen it you begin to realize that it was only put into the movie in order to finally end it and thus end the suffering of those in it.

I prefer movies that make me think. I had to think a lot with this movie when I saw it last night. I kept telling my roomie...this is a hard movie to understand. This is a very interesting take of time travel itself. That is ultimately what got me to sit through this movie. I recommend this movie if you want something other than fluff. It is interesting and it is deep. However, you should realize this is not a movie that was made for the theaters. Unfortunately, you have to ignore the Forrest Gump wannabe or simply take him with a grain of salt. I didn't care for many of the supporting characters and would have preferred other people but it wasn't my choice. I will say a lot of the characters you have to grin and bear. Overall, the acting was good. It could have been better.Everything does come together at the end in a very nice "Aha!" moment. Do your best to sit through the end and you will get it all.