TiMER


3/4

Starring: Emma Caulfield, John Patrick Amedori, Michelle Borth, JoBeth Williams, Desmond Harrington

Rated R for Language

If you could find out, with 100% certainty, when you would meet the love of your life, would you really want to know?  It’s an interesting question, and I’m sure that there are a number of people on both sides of the spectrum.  Ideally, the answer would be no, but I’m sure after a while one would get fed up with the dating game and want to know for certain.  Still, there is potential for missing the point of living.

Take Oona O’Leary (Caulfield).  She has a TiMER, the device that counts down to when a person will meet their soulmate.  But her clock isn’t running, which means that she doesn’t have any idea when she’s going to meet Mr. Right since he doesn’t have a one.  Oona is so certain about the TiMER’s power that she won’t date anyone with a TiMER, and if it turns out that her boyfriend’s TiMER says that he isn’t “the one,” she dumps him, because she believes there’s no point.  But then she meets Mikey (Amedori), a drummer who works the checkout counter at the local grocery store.  He has a TiMER, but he believes that life is about the detours, not counting down the days until certainty.  Could it possibly be that the TiMER isn’t as flawless as Oona believes it is?

The premise is fascinating, and it’s fortunate that writer/director Jac Schaeffer has the inventiveness to examine the provocative questions that it poses.  Is it better to know, or to throw caution to the wind and see where you end up?  Or, is it ever too early to know?  Take Oona’s fourteen-year-old brother Jesse (Hayden MacFarland), who isn’t as excited about getting a TiMER as his mother, Marion (Williams) is.

The acting is quite good.  Emma Caulfield is terrific as the oddly named Oona.  She’s lived by the TiMER all her life, and she captures the uncertainty and freedom of the carelessness that not having to worry about if Mikey is “the one” gives her.  And yet, she still craves knowing.  John Patrick Amedori is also very good as the free-spirited Mikey.  He may have a TiMER, but he’s going to enjoy the freedom while it lasts.  Caulfield and Amedori have a nice, believable chemistry together, which is crucial for a movie like this.  Michelle Borth is very amusing as Oona’s step-sister Steph, who has a one-liner for just about every situation.  JoBeth Williams is also quite funny as their mother, who is so blinded by her faith in the TiMER that she doesn’t realize that there could be any negative effects from getting one.  Criminally underused Desmond Harrington is good as Dan, Steph’s boyfriend.

It’s so nice to see a movie that isn’t afraid to be creative, especially in a romantic-comedy, where formula is so entrenched in the genre that it has become an asset.  It’s a movie that will make you think, and Schaeffer is smart enough to provide answers for the characters while leaving the viewer to find their own.  There is an ending with closure, although it is more than slightly open-ended.  At first I thought this was a mistake, but then I realized it was really the right move.

I enjoyed “TiMER” for the more conventional reasons (acting, writing, character development, etc.), but also because it got me to think in a nice, pleasant arena. That alone is worth recommending the movie.

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