This could have been a great film, but

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2005)

The acting: really very good.
The direction: clever, thematic and nicely understated.
The plot: unbelievably simple  a six year old would easily spot the holes: - ah but we can't have that can we? So what to do? "I know" someone says "lets hide it." This is where the film goes wrong: time travel is notoriously difficult to get right in terms of narrative so that it both works out and is internally consistent. Unfortunately the method used here was not to bother and just hope that if everything is sufficiently cryptic-seeming then no one would notice. To be fair this does seem to have worked at least partially judging by some of the reviews. I have a mathematical background and am a lover of science fiction and I am sorry but good acting and film-craft can't cover up a childish plot.
Clearly the overly signalled end was the starting, and perhaps the only, plot premise of this entire film. This really means that the rest of the film was effectively filler to get us there and when analysed in terms of plot consistency this does seem the only possible conclusion. Let us look at some of the many really blatant faux pas:
1. They are not very good at finding the right time or place. Yet they always manage to find the Earth and get there person on the surface wherever and whenever they inadvertently send him. (We will forgive this one: it is a biggie, but it is kind of necessary so lets be generous)
2. Why do they need this 'dead letter' method of passing messages if they can find there target when they inadvertently put him amongst the French forces in world war I or when the collect him from his hospital cell?
3. What is the point anyway? They know when and where to find the first victim  so go back get a blood sample; end of problem.
In those precious few moments in this film when we are given access to some actual plot we are presented with that tried and tested 'Time Travel' conundrum: what came first the cause or the effect? The 'If I hadn't tried to fix it there would not have been a problem to fix, so how did this get started anyway' question. Don't get me wrong, I realise this is the inevitable distillation of most good 'Time Travel' stories and if it is handled well and given a new or interesting spin it still has plenty of mileage left in it. Unfortunately there was nothing new or interesting here; there was not even a real attempt to make it fit with the ultimate (obvious from the beginning) plot twist.
This film could have been so good, but no one likes being taken for a fool. So once one realises that in plot terms the king really does not have any clothes one really feels rather used and this makes the good parts of this film all the harder to appreciate or enjoy. Unfortunately a near miss often come off worse than something a good deal worse: compare this with 'Plan Nine from Outer space'; this is so nearly a good film, yet 'Plan Nine' is arguably less annoying to watch!