I think one of my favourite things about genre fiction is how it can surprise you. How it can exceed your expectations in a way that a lot of other fiction can’t. Basically you sit down to read, play, or watch something involving a robot, a unicorn or a monster and find yourself getting what you wanted and then suddenly realizing that the story gave you a lot more.
Case in point: The 2009 film TiMER.
The premise of this Science Fiction film is pretty simple. What if there were a device you could have attached to your wrist at a mall that told you, with complete assurance exactly when you would meet your soul mate? The machine only works with people who are actively in the program, so it is possible, like the main character, to have a wrist band displaying flashing dashes rather than a specific number of days, hours, and minutes until your soul mate pays the $79.99 fee to receive their own TiMER device.
Here’s what I liked about the movie – first of all, the lead actress Emma Caulfield was really really good – having only seen her in the tooth-fairy themed horror film Darkness Falls before this, I was pleasantly surprised by her comedic acting chops. Secondly, like all of my favourite fiction, the story was very character driven, leading the audience to care about (or at least understand) all of its characters. Finally the score was a lot of fun.
The movie moved deftly between romance and drama, and although it was a quieter film (some will find it slow), I really enjoyed how well the film handled its subject matter.
This movie was one of the nicest surprises I’ve had in Science Fiction films all year.
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