Time travel does not have to be overly complicated...

Rating: 8/10 (19 November 2012)

A very intelligent and elegant movie. Some reviews here on IMDb say it lacks ambition or depth, that the motivations and rules behind time travel are not explained enough. I disagree. While the director could have chosen to deliberately obfuscate things (fairly easy to do when time travel is involved) to make the movie look 'deep', he focused on a tight storyline and convincing character development, letting your imagination fill in the details. This results in one of the rare time travel movies that is at the same time thought-provoking and easy to follow. Not a small feat in my opinion!
The actors are excellent (the little boy fits perfectly as the 'future-that-was' Rainmaker), and the relatively slow pace (compared to an action movie) gives them time to show it; it also lets the atmosphere sink in. The depiction of poverty and vagrancy-ridden 2044 is also rather convincing, although I have a hard time believing our current-day car models will still run in 30 years, even grafted with solar panels - I don't know whether this is deliberate or if the budget allocated to the sets was tight (probably the latter). No big deal though - the movie is much better than many million-dollar blockbusters with perfect sets.
My main gripe was with the ending; I did not find young Joe's final decision to be completely credible. He spent most of the movie fighting against his loop to protect his own future, and is turned a bit too quickly by his very recent bonding with the Rainmaker kid, and the possibility of letting the latter take the 'good track' (even if Joe's own childhood experience does provide some explanation).
All in all, a very enjoyable movie that I would heartily recommend.