Time Travel's a Bit of a Revolving Door, Apparently
And now we return to business as usual with today's review; From Time to Time.
I was sold on the idea of From Time To Time when cinematixyz here on Livejournal mentioned that it involved the 1700’s and a captain in the British Royal Navy, though of course the rest of the plot sounded interesting too. But I was busy with other things and forgot about the recommendation until recently, when my memory was jogged and I sought the movie out. Sadly, while the naval costume is great and there’s a lot of possibility in the story, the execution leaves something to be desired.
The movie starts, not in the 1700’s, but at the tail end of WWII. A boy named Tolly Oldknow (Alex Etel) is sent to stay with his grandmother (Maggie Smith) at their family estate while his mother tries to get information about his father, who’s fighting in the war and was reported as missing. Tolly doesn’t particularly want to be there, especially since he doesn’t think his grandmother likes his mother very much. He is, however, interested in the stories she tells of some of his ancestors, and one in particular gets his attention. Back during the Napoleonic war days, there was an incident where two things happened in quick succession; all of the jewelry of the lady of the house was stolen, and then the house caught fire and burned down an entire wing of the manor. That very night, Tolly sees a young girl, who is escorted away by a maid in old-fashioned clothing. His grandmother says that’s to be expected, that the Oldknows have the ability to literally peer into the manor’s past. And so, at random intervals, Tolly winds up observing the events that led up to the night of the fire. Perhaps he’ll be the one to finally figure out where the jewels disappeared to.
Like I said in the introduction, the core idea here is great. The problem is, the story can’t seem to decide what rules to follow when it comes to the time travel, leading to a tale that feels like it was being overseen by Admiral Plot Device. First, it seemed like Tolly would just get glimpses of the past, a passive observer to what was going on. Then, much like the previously reviewed Tom’s Midnight Garden, one person can see him, the blind Susan Oldknow (Eliza Bennett), which I thought was reasonable and kind of a neat idea. A little while later, however, other characters from the past are able to see him too, but only ever the ones who are designated as “good guys”. It then goes to an entirely different level of interaction, where Tolly can not only pick up items like food, he leaves something behind in the past, something that had been regarded as a bit of a family mystery. On top of all this, there are stretches where we see things play out in the past that Tolly doesn’t appear to be present for, and it’s difficult to tell if these are supposed to be stories his grandmother is telling or just expository scenes for the audience (sometimes there’s voiceover by the grandmother, sometimes there isn’t). The writers could have made the story work if they’d just stuck to one of the various levels of interaction; doing them all makes an audience more likely to notice and be annoyed with the inconsistencies.
I have a few other complaints, too. Two of the Napoleonic characters are cartoonishly evil, and a third isn’t much better, so there’s no nuance and it starts to stretch credibility. A large portion of the plot revolves around a black boy named Jacob (Kwayedza Kureya) who is brought on to be Susan’s companion, and while he’s a fine character, the attitudes the others have towards him can make some of his scenes difficult to watch for the audience. The “bad” characters are so over-the-top in their cruel treatment of him that you feel like you’re getting preached to about how racism is bad, while other characters treat him on more equal footing, which is nice but a little too much of a modern sensibility, and thus feels out of place. This next complaint is somewhat petty and wouldn’t have really contributed anything to the story, but it’s an example of why the writers needed to figure out their worldbuilding. Tolly’s grandmother makes it sound like the Oldknows are able to see the pasts and/or ghosts of all their Oldknow ancestors. So why are we only seeing the ones from the Napoleonic wars and not, say, the Victorian era? Like I said, throwing in different time periods would have just made the story even more complicated, but even a one sentence explanation would have been all right by me. And finally, I am incredibly disappointed that the movie didn’t go for one specific twist and instead went with a more pedestrian explanation. The setup was right there, and they didn’t take advantage of it. Missed opportunity, if you ask me.
While the movie is well made, well acted, and has some good ideas (including a moment near the end that genuinely surprised me), I probably wouldn’t recommend it if you’re the type of person who overthinks things and will get distracted or annoyed by the varying time travel rules. I’d suggest seeking out other stories with the same basic concept instead. And if all else fails, you can try Tom’s Midnight Garden…
I was sold on the idea of From Time To Time when cinematixyz here on Livejournal mentioned that it involved the 1700’s and a captain in the British Royal Navy, though of course the rest of the plot sounded interesting too. But I was busy with other things and forgot about the recommendation until recently, when my memory was jogged and I sought the movie out. Sadly, while the naval costume is great and there’s a lot of possibility in the story, the execution leaves something to be desired.
The movie starts, not in the 1700’s, but at the tail end of WWII. A boy named Tolly Oldknow (Alex Etel) is sent to stay with his grandmother (Maggie Smith) at their family estate while his mother tries to get information about his father, who’s fighting in the war and was reported as missing. Tolly doesn’t particularly want to be there, especially since he doesn’t think his grandmother likes his mother very much. He is, however, interested in the stories she tells of some of his ancestors, and one in particular gets his attention. Back during the Napoleonic war days, there was an incident where two things happened in quick succession; all of the jewelry of the lady of the house was stolen, and then the house caught fire and burned down an entire wing of the manor. That very night, Tolly sees a young girl, who is escorted away by a maid in old-fashioned clothing. His grandmother says that’s to be expected, that the Oldknows have the ability to literally peer into the manor’s past. And so, at random intervals, Tolly winds up observing the events that led up to the night of the fire. Perhaps he’ll be the one to finally figure out where the jewels disappeared to.
Like I said in the introduction, the core idea here is great. The problem is, the story can’t seem to decide what rules to follow when it comes to the time travel, leading to a tale that feels like it was being overseen by Admiral Plot Device. First, it seemed like Tolly would just get glimpses of the past, a passive observer to what was going on. Then, much like the previously reviewed Tom’s Midnight Garden, one person can see him, the blind Susan Oldknow (Eliza Bennett), which I thought was reasonable and kind of a neat idea. A little while later, however, other characters from the past are able to see him too, but only ever the ones who are designated as “good guys”. It then goes to an entirely different level of interaction, where Tolly can not only pick up items like food, he leaves something behind in the past, something that had been regarded as a bit of a family mystery. On top of all this, there are stretches where we see things play out in the past that Tolly doesn’t appear to be present for, and it’s difficult to tell if these are supposed to be stories his grandmother is telling or just expository scenes for the audience (sometimes there’s voiceover by the grandmother, sometimes there isn’t). The writers could have made the story work if they’d just stuck to one of the various levels of interaction; doing them all makes an audience more likely to notice and be annoyed with the inconsistencies.
I have a few other complaints, too. Two of the Napoleonic characters are cartoonishly evil, and a third isn’t much better, so there’s no nuance and it starts to stretch credibility. A large portion of the plot revolves around a black boy named Jacob (Kwayedza Kureya) who is brought on to be Susan’s companion, and while he’s a fine character, the attitudes the others have towards him can make some of his scenes difficult to watch for the audience. The “bad” characters are so over-the-top in their cruel treatment of him that you feel like you’re getting preached to about how racism is bad, while other characters treat him on more equal footing, which is nice but a little too much of a modern sensibility, and thus feels out of place. This next complaint is somewhat petty and wouldn’t have really contributed anything to the story, but it’s an example of why the writers needed to figure out their worldbuilding. Tolly’s grandmother makes it sound like the Oldknows are able to see the pasts and/or ghosts of all their Oldknow ancestors. So why are we only seeing the ones from the Napoleonic wars and not, say, the Victorian era? Like I said, throwing in different time periods would have just made the story even more complicated, but even a one sentence explanation would have been all right by me. And finally, I am incredibly disappointed that the movie didn’t go for one specific twist and instead went with a more pedestrian explanation. The setup was right there, and they didn’t take advantage of it. Missed opportunity, if you ask me.
While the movie is well made, well acted, and has some good ideas (including a moment near the end that genuinely surprised me), I probably wouldn’t recommend it if you’re the type of person who overthinks things and will get distracted or annoyed by the varying time travel rules. I’d suggest seeking out other stories with the same basic concept instead. And if all else fails, you can try Tom’s Midnight Garden…