Behind every door...

Rating: 6/10 (2 July 2011)

Sic-fi isn't quite my thing and much of this movie had me thinking of the several related cinematic reference points along the way (for starters, "A Matter of Life And Death", "Terminator 2", even TV shows like "Heroes" and "Sapphire And Steel", all of which adapt the notion of circular time to re-write the future. The difference here is that, in this film, our destinies are apparently controlled by peripheral men just out of our vision, wearing hats.
Trust Matt Damon's rising young senator to buck the tend by falling coincidentally for modern dancer Emily Blunt, thus rewriting the future time-line of his would-be presidential character as well as Blunt's ascent to the top of her chosen profession as a top choreographer. Their love affair isn't part of the plan you see and the film posits the age-old question "can true love conquer all?", although to be fair, the ending is never really in doubt.
There was some stuff I liked in the film, the two leads, Damon and Blunt seem to bind together effectively, the story skips along pacify and some of the shots of modern day New York are impressive.
Against this I wasn't quite sure with which story the director was happiest, the romantic drama of Damon and Blunt's burgeoning romance, the race around town at the end as Damon seeks to avoid having his mind erased of all his memories or just the trip around NewYork's major tourist attractions, entered through every different door the fleeing couple run through.
Perhaps the film could could have implied the danger-factor more to give a bit more reason for all the running around - Damon must cover as much ground here as Tom Cruise did in the Firm.
All in all though, the movie was an entertaining diversion, reasonably imaginative if lacking a little in tension to make it more compelling.