By Dustin Hall
I’m a fan of Jacob Gentry’s weird and wonderful film The Signal, one of my favorite random finds from a closing Blockbuster video, so when I found a chance to check out his new work, the unfortunately named Synchronicity (unfortunate in that there are nine other titles on IMDB with the same name and no poster; good luck picking that one out), I jumped at the chance. What I found was another indie gem, though something that is completely different from anything Gentry has directed prior.
Immediately, Synchronicity will begin drawing comparisons to other films. Most notably, the film takes its score, and attempts to model its lighting, from Blade Runner. This isn’t a bad choice, as the soundtrack is very solid 80’s sci-fi pastiche, and the lighting and sets, while always pretty dark, do have some lovely textures in them. Of course, while it draws comparisons to Blade Runner, it doesn’t come close to matching the beauty of that film (God, does anything?). The comparisons don’t stop there, though, as some plot elements resemble fragments from Primer (2004), while the story structure itself is very much like Timecrimes (2007). There are influences which can be felt as well, but in the end, Synchronicity isn’t as good as any of the films which inspired it. However, overlooking that the film is less than the sum of its parts, there’s still some enjoyable elements.
The story of Synchronicity is that of Jim Beale (Chad McKnight), who one day turns on his time machine to find it receives a potted flower from the future the instant it powers up. With this in hand, he seeks further funding from his boss, Klaus (Michael Ironside), who subsequently threatens to absorb the whole experiment. Jim is helped by femme fatale Abby (Brianne Davis) and his lab techs, but nothing goes simply or smoothly. Jim’s trust is put to the test in a twisted network of business backstabbing, and as if that weren’t enough, the flower, and whatever else may have come with it, have created a paradox of sorts that Jim has to fix before his experiment and the world comes crumbling down around him. But as he begins to put the pieces together, he ultimately finds that none of those pieces are exactly as they seem.
The story is interesting and mysterious enough to keep the viewer engaged through the duration, and guessing up till the end. The cast are all solid, though McKnight is honestly overpowered by much of his supporting cast. In the end the thing that makes this tale unable to rise to the heights of its influences is its script. I can overlook a less experienced cast and sets designed around a minimal budget, Synchronicity does well within its limitations, but in the end the script undoes some of that goodwill. The motivations of the characters shift and jump without enough build up to seem sincere, and the largest sin is that the story tries, perhaps too hard, to be clever and keep the audience guessing. This creates a complicated tapestry of events that is never really resolved clearly or to the satisfaction of the audience. The events also require a few jumps in logic, such as Klaus being able to claim Intellectual Property rights on the time machine because something of his went through it (that’d be like Disney owning my Blu Ray player because I was watching Aladdin on it earlier), or Jim trusting a girl he met days earlier to make a life-defining business decision on his behalf, even though he clearly doesn’t trust her at all. But, hey, it moves the plot.
Faults aside, Gerber has still put together a pretty entertaining flick, a temporal puzzle for viewers to attempt to decipher, backed by a strong score and some nostalgic visuals. If you’re able to catch this one at a festival, or perhaps if Magnet again picks up this sophomore feature, like it did The Signal, for DVD release, you could do much worse as far as sci-fi movie nights go.
Synchronicity will screen at Toronto After Dark on Friday 16th October at 7pm.