Time Lapse is a time-travel like movie that is well paced, well scripted, well acted and well twisted in the end. I have to admit that I was so caught up in the web of deceit and betrayal that I did not expect the twist in the end, and it was a well done end. Time Lapse reminded me some-what of Memento, and I suspect some aspects of the resemblance are a homage to that singular movie.
Finn, his girlfriend Callie and the third wheel Jasper live together in the janitor’s apartment in what looks like a gated assisted living facility. At least the two tenants we know of are elderly and there is indeed a gate and a guard. It’s not clear what the living arrangements are, but the whole getup is a little shady. Finn has painter’s block, Callie isn’t getting any action and Jasper is a gambling addict.
One of the tenants, Dr. B, hasn’t been seen for some time and Callie enters his apartment to check up on him. She discovers a wall full of polaroid photos of their big picture window, something like that scene from that Robbin Williams movie. Turns out Dr. B’s not some ordinary peeping tom. He’s a high tech peeping tom. Out of some old parts, left over from a world war two movie, Dr. B has created a novel camera.
The camera has a lens, probably an f0.1 from the size of the front element, which is as big as your head, that takes photos, punctually at 8:00pm, of what the scene at the window is, or rather will be, the next day at 8:00pm. This is a nice twist to the time travel genre and reminded me a bit of ‘light of other days’ by Bob Shaw.
The three investigators also find Dr. B’s body, burnt to a crisp, in a storage unit and a myth arises that if you don’t do what the picture says you will be doing, well, you’re going to be burnt to a crisp. Religions have started on flimsier evidence than this, so I’m not THAT skeptical.
The terrific trio, with this wondrous time peeping camera on their hands turn their great minds, naturally, to gambling. Jasper sets up bets for races and other things with his bookie and wins tons of money. Interestingly, Finn sees his paintings on the easel near the window and starts painting again, plagiarizing himself, as it were. A time-travel paradox as old as the I-Killed-My-Grandfather paradox.
The time traveling camera, made out of spare parts Dr. B had lying around after his toaster broke, I can believe. What I can not believe is that Finn the janitor/artist is oblivious of his girlfriend, Callie (photo included on right as evidence).
If Finn had painter’s block because every time he put brush to canvas, a fire lit in him and he jumped into bed with Callie, I could believe that. If Finn and Callie spent their days in debauched orgies, drinking away their lives and dancing naked in the big picture window, I would believe that. If Finn threw Jasper onto the street because he was making a move on Callie, I could definitely believe that. What I can’t believe is Finn spending the days sitting in front of a blank canvas moping. To be honest, I think Finn isn’t THAT into girls OR art. I think he just PRETENDS to like art because it makes him more hipster like. He pretends to hate the janitor stuff, but he’s really good at it and likes it a lot, but he’s too embarrassed to come out in front of Callie and Jasper and say so.
Well, back to the action. Finn’s bookie figures out something is amiss, horns into the action, keeping the trio under virtual home arrest. He gets Finn to write up all the race results and then takes the photos from him and places bets himself. This part is not clear to me. As the Bookie, I would have bumped off the three, stolen the camera and set it up in a secure location, perhaps in one of the many deserted warehouses I own so as to maintain maximum control over everything. This business of keeping three unwilling accomplices around seems so messy. Well, I guess its amateur hour all around.
How does it end? Do the trio escape? How does all this wealth corrupt them? Do they betray each other? Do Finn and Callie get some action? Do Jasper and Callie get it on? Does Jasper kill Finn? Does Callie kill Finn? Does Finn kill Callie? For once, I’m not going to spoil it for you. The movie is definitely worth watching – if you can get over the terrible job Finn does in convincing us he hates being a janitor and really wants to be a painter, and Callie is his girlfriend – and is definitely worth watching, right up to the very end.
It’s the polaroids and the leaving of messages across time via the polaroids that reminded me of Memento, especially the twist at the end – which reminds me a lot of Memento. Sorry, I guess I did leave a semi-spoiler here. I would give it 9/10 stars. Docking one star for Finn. Sorry, I can’t get over that guy.
As a bit of trivia, IMDB tells me that there was a movie by the same title in 2001 with a completely different plot. Also, Jasper’s character is played by George Finn. I can imagine that leading to some confusion on the set.
Spoiler Alert! 