NOT QUITE SYNCHING UP
Movie Review – “Sychronicity”
Review by Ray Schillaci
For all its ambition to deliver a unique time travel tale, “Synchronicity” stumbles over itself with convoluted storytelling and an attempt at a film noir look that makes Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner” appear bright as day. It’s all too dark, too self-evident, and after awhile became tiresome for this reviewer.
With the wonderful science-fiction entries that were presented to us in 2015, “Predestination” and “Ex Machina,” Jacob Gentry’s “Synchronicity” unfortunately appears to be just a step above a SyFy Channel exclusive. It whets the appetite, but never delivers the full course meal we so badly crave.
A young, handsome, idealistic physicist, Jim Beale, played with admirable angst by Chad McKnight, is on the cusp of developing a time machine of sorts, but he lacks a specific power source and has no choice but to turn to a ruthless corporate chief. It should be noted that the wonderful Michael Ironside plays the villain, Klaus Meisner, with his reliable nasty gusto. Once the project is tested and Beale attempts to pass something through the wormhole he’s created, it’s thought that someone might have stepped through entering into our dimension.
As Beale chases after this person, he meets up (by happenstance) with a beautiful stranger, Abby, a fetching Brianne Davis, who seems to know quite a bit about inventors and their financiers, and it is more than likely that she is sleeping with the corporate chief, but will eventually fall in love with our handsome physicist. Unfortunately, the whole affair can be second guessed, and the characters are more cut out than flesh and bone.
This is disappointing after Gentry’s last promising outing “The Signal”. At least with that film he had us guessing, and nearly on the edge of our seat. “Synchronicity” is filled with a lot of promise, but the writing is its downfall. Dialogue is flat, plot predictable, and the characters are stock, leaving little for the actors to work with. But I must admit some of the visuals are arresting – the wormhole depictions and the plants that are used as an experiment. Perhaps if Gentry put as much effort into the writing as he did with the look he was aiming for, “Synchronicity” could have been a stand out for 2016.
Directed by: Jacob Gentry
Release Date: January 22, 2016
Run Time: 101 Minutes
Country: USA
Rated: R
Distributor: POP Films
