A bit too good to be true

Rating: 6/10 (11 September 2013)

There's a lot to like about this movie. It has a slightly nostalgic feel to it whilst still being very current. The protagonist's family are quirky, idiosyncratic, and all dote on each other. There's a batty old uncle, an academic yet devoted father, an independent yet loving mother, a brother and sister who never fight but adore each other, halcyon days spent growing up in a crumbling old mansion house in Cornwall, picnicking on the beach in all weathers... then the boy turns 21 and discovers at a New Year party that the men in the family all have the ability to travel back in time. Cue some hilarious moments in which the boy dots back and forth in time, revisiting moments he didn't quite get right the first time so that he can have another crack at them. He marries, has a baby daughter, and then his sister is badly hurt in a car accident. Back in time he pops, and the accident never happens. However, when he returns to present time, his baby daughter has transformed into a baby son, because it seems that when you alter something in the past you get a different future. Deciding he can't live without his precious daughter, he goes back AGAIN and makes the accident happen. His sister has to go through the pain of rehabilitation, which of course she does, with her brother's support. Then the boy's father develops cancer. Needless to say, he's been time travelling for years, extending his own life, effectively, but now he's ready to die. But that's cool, because the son can keep travelling back in time to see him whenever he wants. However, after the father's funeral, the son's wife says she wants another baby. The son realises if they do this then he'll have to choose between seeing his father and risking the baby changing into someone else. He chooses the baby, and goes back to visit his father one last time. The two of them have a 'golden day' revisiting a walk they'd taken when the son was about ten, down on the beach, then say their goodbyes. The film ends with the son realising you have to live in the moment instead of worrying about time travel. What disappointed me about the film was the lack of dramatic tension. Even the whole father/son dilemma was more poignant than stressful, and there was never really a point where I felt, yikes, what will he choose to do? Had the sister been killed in that car crash, and the protagonist had to choose between saving his sister's life and keeping the same baby he and his wife had, I can't help feeling it would have carried a bit more weight. It's hard to believe this came from the same stable as 'Love Actually', where we had plenty of tragedy along with the comedy - the guy who was in love with his best friend's wife, the sister with the institutionalised brother who wasn't free to fall in love, the wife with the erstwhile philandering husband... All in all, just a bit too saccharine-sweet for my taste.