Needle in a Timestack is a melancholy romance with a sci-fi high concept. In the near future, time travel is possible. It’s expensive but you can contract with a company to send you back… but making changes is illegal. That doesn’t stop time storms and, when one happens, people usually get on their phones to make sure they are still married, have kids, and if the cat is ok (or, for example, if it’s now a dog).

The movie stars Leslie Odom Jr. as a man madly in love with his wife (Cynthia Erivo) but also obsessed with the idea that her ex (Orlando Bloom!) might be time travelling in an attempt to break up their marriage before it happened. And he might be right since, during on big time storm, he winds up married to someone else and rapidly forgetting his old life.

So this is a romance that asks big questions about what love is, if it can survive being erased, or if its inevitable.

This is also a deeply somber, sober, and slow film. I think it’s actually pretty intriguing but definitely cold and aloof. This is not a hot-blooded, bodice-tearing romance… it’s a thoughtful, kind of depressing melancholy look at lost and found love. Using a big sci-fi concept to occasionally stir the drinks and reshuffle the board.

I’m sure it’s not for everyone… it’s pretty mindful approach might leave some as cold and distant as the characters often feel. That is if a person even gives a second glance to a movie called “Needle in a Timestack”. I’m the type of geek who saw that title and my ears perked up (and perked even higher when I saw it was based on a Robert Silverberg short story).

This isn’t my favorite romance and it’s not my favorite time travel story… but I still enjoyed it well enough.

Score: 76