Predestination Dir. The Spierig Brothers

[Sony/Stage 6 Films; 2014]

Styles: sci-fi
Others: Looper, Timecop, Source Code

“I don’t want to talk about time travel because if we start talking about it then we’re going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws.” —Looper

It’s difficult to discuss Predestination because it is a very plot-focused film with numerous twists, many of which are telegraphed pretty clearly fairly early on, making hard to even determine what is a spoiler and what isn’t. Suffice it to say that the Spierig Brothers (Undead, Daybreakers) here continue their filmography of simply mediocre, lightly entertaining films that offer a few surprises but mostly don’t add much to whatever particular genre they tackle (zombies, vampires, and now time travel). Predestination is a well-made diversion that offers some solid performances and intriguing world building around its periphery, but ultimately the audience gets so far ahead of the characters that it feels like we’re waiting around for the sluggish film to catch up.

Ethan Hawke, credited only as “The Bartender,” plays a time travel agent in an alternate version of our world where a mad bomber has been targeting populated sites in major U.S. cities throughout the 60s and 70s. Due to the erratic nature of the bomber’s plans and actions, it’s difficult for Hawke to apprehend his criminal (almost like he knows he’s being tracked through time). After performing many more jumps than anyone in history — a feat, we are reminded multiple times by multiple characters, that can cause severe psychological damage to the traveler — Hawke has one last mission, which finds him in a bar in New York City in the late 70s. In walks “The Unmarried Mother,” the nom de plume of a man (Sarah Snook playing male and female characters in a way that would border on those aforementioned spoilers) who writes tawdry true confession stories for various magazines aimed mostly at bored housewives. But this man has saved the greatest confession for last, and Hawke bets him a bottle that it won’t be the craziest story he’s ever heard. Needless to say, the story is engaging and surprising, but Hawke’s time-travelling character already knows it far too well.

Hawke and Snook both turn in outstanding performances that call on them to show a wide range of emotions as the story progresses. Hawke’s “Bartender” has to be both engaging and enigmatic, relatable yet clearly holding something back that makes him intriguing. Snook, though, is the standout actor in this film, playing a character who is determined, yet wounded; hopeful, yet cynical; female, yet male all as the tale moves forward. Her performance is especially notable for how natural it all seems, making her not just the center of the story but the emotional core of the entire film.

The rest of the movie offers interesting side elements from its source material, Robert Heinlein’s short story, “All You Zombies.” The Spierigs (who also wrote the film) never emphasize how much it’s a different world, but there are small matters like commercialization of space exploration that fit in with a space age motif at the periphery of the film alongside the usual signifiers of the 50s, 60s, and 70s (like fashion, abundance of smoking, traditional gender roles, etc.).

Predestination is a perfectly serviceable film whose main concerns are both the role of paradox in time travel, as well as the paradoxes that define us as we mature — person we once were can become the total opposite of what we grow into. The problem with the film is that , while there are meant to be a lot of supposed shocks in the script that attempt reveal some greater truth, the audience has already gleaned what that will be. The message never has the impact or emotional mindfuckery that could have been had the clues not been so heavy-handed. Predestination has interesting ideas and impressive performances that keep the audience engaged, but never anything so bold or mindblowing that it will become a cult film. There are worse things than being average and inoffensive, but it’s frustrating when the results could have been so much more.

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