Predestination: A Time-Travel Thriller with Training Wheels

Predestination has everything you're looking for in a good time travel movie: a world-weary protagonist determined to do whatever it takes to set things right, scenes revisited multiple times from varying points of view, a horrible disfiguration, a couple of truly great WTF moments, and a nonlinear narrative that's almost confusing enough to demand repeat viewing (more on that later). The film is based on the short story "'-- All You Zombies --'" by acclaimed American science fiction author, Robert A. Heinlein. Heinlein's work is well-known for dealing with themes of self-sacrifice to protect and advance society, a theme that is the driving force throughout Predestination. Ethan Hawke stars as "The Barkeep", a "temporal agent" who is tasked with stopping crimes before they actually occur or instigating events that will ultimately save lives. He's basically Tom Cruise in Minority Report, but with less fancy equipment and more hipster facial hair. The Barkeep is on a mission through time to identify a killer known as "The Fizzle Bomber," a homegrown terrorist responsible for detonating bombs in highly populated areas that claim thousands of lives. The device that allows The Barkeep to hop through time looks like an ordinary violin case, but what at first glance appears to be a simple scrolling lock on the case's side actually allows The Barkeep to select his target destination date. Hawke, as always, is thoroughly watchable and leaves you wondering why he isn't cast in more tentpole movies. In a perfect world, Hawke would win this year's Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in Boyhood and then claim his rightful spot as the go-to Everyman Action Hero once Liam Neeson decides to hang up his old man, face-punching slacks. As great as Hawke is, his counterpart, Sarah Snook, is the real star of the movie. She's essentially tasked with playing multiple characters with astonishingly different points of view, and while some of the transitions are jarring, her performance is so convincing that it doesn't take long to buy-in completely to each new variation (she was recently cast in the Danny Boyle-directed, Aaron Sorkin-penned Steve Jobs biopic, so now is the time to get on the Sarah Snook Bandwagon before it gets too full). Snook's IMDB-credited role for the film is "The Unmarried Mother," a pen name for the writer she portrays during long stretches of the film, but a single credit definitely undersells her contributions to the cast, as she's tasked with doing much of the heavy-lifting in most of the film's key scenes. To say much more about the plot of the movie would risk venturing into heavy spoiler territory, but rest assured that if you enjoy wrestling with the paradoxes related to time travel found in films like Primer and Looper, you'll have plenty to think about after watching Predestination. http://youtu.be/jcQacCfi_pw Predestination was written and directed by The Spierig Brothers (Michael and Peter), a pair of Australian filmmakers who are best known for their second film, Daybreakers, which starred Hawke as a vampire hematologist who joins forces with human survivors to attempt to "cure" vampirism (Undead, the brothers' debut film, is worth checking out, too, if for no other reason than to see the film's heroine wield a four-barrelled shotgun). They do a fantastic job of making scenes that are heavy in narration interesting and engaging. The movie itself is visually stunning; the Spierigs admirably blend believable futuristic technology with the immediately recognizable aesthetics of decades spanning back to the 1960s. Now, about the "training wheels." I'll admit, labeling Predestination as a "training wheels" time travel movie may be a bit harsh. It's a decent entry in the time-travel thriller genre and I really enjoyed 95% of it. But where the film lost me, and where it veered into overbearing hand-holding territory, was near the end of the film when the directors opted to grab the viewer by the collar and forcibly walk you through a ham-fisted montage that pieces the entire story together. Will it help the average viewer walk away with a better understanding of what exactly happened? Sure. But half of the fun of these types of movies is finding yourself sitting in your chair long after the credits have rolled, mentally untangling and reconnecting key scenes and subtle beats of the film as you try to solve the mystery on your own. I respect the directors' decision to fill in the blanks, but it was that lone, 90-second montage that, for me at least, ultimately ensures Predestination will be remembered as a good, not great, sci fi movie. Predestination is currently playing in select theaters and is available on various VOD platforms including iTunes and YouTube.   @TheSEShepherd