Also watched (via streaming) the new sci-fi romance film 2:22. This isn’t an entirely bad film but it is wasted on not knowing what kind of movie it wants to be and flounders trying to find a purpose.
The movie stars an air traffic controller who sees patterns in life which makes him good at his job. But, due maybe to a star going nova, he starts to see weird patterns of people and events all happening at the same time during the day, each day. He almost causes an air traffic disaster and later meets a woman at a ballet who was one one of the planes. They begin to date and he continues to lose grip on reality.
The first forty-five minutes is largely focused on the romance and I enjoyed that. The two leads are good, sweet, and charming together. But when the sci-fi plot kicks in, you quickly realize there isn’t enough story to justify a full ninety minute movie. And the flick just starts to fall apart.
If this had jettisoned the sci-fi, it’d have been a cute romance flick. As a sci-fi flick, it would have made a decent 45-60 minute episode of something like Black Mirror – but stretching its plot to the breaking point was just a bore. The film tries real hard and I give it credit for that… but the ability to maintain the audience’s interest, keep the mystery interesting, and sustain the “is he going crazy or are they reliving the past” story just doesn’t work.
Not a complete disaster. It’s saved a bit by the actors and some of the mystery can work in between the long amounts of time stretching the flick puts us through. Overall, it’s a decent attempt at romantic sci-fi mystery but not really good enough to recommend.
Score: 72