Starring: Clara Rugaard, Lewis Pullman, Lyrica Okano, Christina Chang, Danny Glover, Matt Walsh
Distributor: Rialto Films
Runtime: 85 mins. Reviewed in Jul 2022
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
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A young woman has a chance to save the love of her life, when she discovers that the mix-tape they made together can transport her back in time.
Definitely one for the romantically-inclined, with a major appeal to audiences in their 20s. There are some parents and a mysteriously wise adviser played by Danny Glover, but the focus is very much on the young. And, probably safe to say, it’s not a movie for the non-romantically-inclined.
The central character is Laura (Rugaard), an artist, with up-and-coming hopes. She hangs out with her friend Chloe (Okano) whose interest is definitely not art. Beach boys cross the street and she is immediately after them. However, she does fall in love with one of them and marries. But, she is keen on setting up Laura with her brother, Harrison (Pullman).
Audiences who are waiting for some conflict may be set back a little when the two actually fall in love – rather quickly. And the bond between them is music, a playlist, on small cassettes from the past. Harrison works in a record store which buys back tapes for cash from people who had created them in the past and no longer needed them. They are displayed on a special shelf. In the meantime, Lewis has ambitions to study medicine.
Then, we are rather taken aback, as is Laura, when Harrison is killed in an accident. This is not a spoiler because the rest of the film depends on this episode.
Laura is sad, time passes by, she mourns Harrison, is not in touch with Chloe and her family as she should. But there was also the wise adviser, the old man, a friend of Harrison, who talks with her, helps with the music – but also has a mysterious aura.
There have been a lot of popular movies playing with romance and time, going back into the past, parallel universes, think About Time, think In Time, remember aspects of Ghost and Groundhog Day.
Which means then that we live Laura’s strange experiences, the playlist, playing the music, going back into the past, and her encounters with Harrison, trying to save him, always in love – but, then her appearing and disappearing in the past and in the present, depending on the music.
So, it will depend on how happy you want your ending to be, love and romance all over again, or Laura to accept reality and to face her future. What would we choose!
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