Scarlett Monet #3 | Page 17

TiMER (2009)

Rating: 4 out of 5

Sci-Fi, Romance, Comedy

Director-Writer: Jac Schaeffer [First Feature]

Cast: Emma Caulfield, John Patrick Amedori, Michelle Borth

Available on: NetFlix (Streaming), I-Tunes, DVD.

By Curt Wiser

Logan's Run, The Final Cut, Soylent Green, The Matrix, A Clockwork Orange and TiMER; any great science fiction story uses the genre as a means to comment on our society from a safe distance. TiMER is set in a near future that seems to be just like our present day but with one major difference; a technologhy called the TiMER went on the market fifteen years ago and single handedly changed the way people date and what their concept of love is. For the reasonable cost of $79.99, plus a monthly fee of $1.99, you can get a timer installed on your wrist. This is a small plastic device with a digital display that once it becomes implanted, it starts to count down the hours, days, years until the moment when you meet your soul mate, your one true love. The other person will have a timer that is in sync with yours and they will start to chime when you both meet for the first time. Some unlucky people have a blank timer, which means they must wait for their true love to get a timer installed so then it will start to count down.

The main character of this movie is Oona, a woman who is about to turn thirty and still has a blank timer. We watch Oona and Steph, her more adventurous step-sister deal with dating in this timer obsessed world. Steph's timer is counting down, even though it says she has to wait ten years, we get a sense that Oona is still slightly jealous of her because at least it confirms there is someone out there for her. When we are first introduced to Oona we see her walk into a timer facility with Brian, a man without a timer that she has been dating for a month. The employees immediately recognize Oona as she is a regular; she has been bringing possible soul mates in there to get timers for years. Oona sits besides Brian while he is reclined in a dentist's chair waiting for an employee to implant a timer on his wrist with some device that looks like a large label making gun. “Will it hurt?” Brian asks as the pronged ends of the timer nears the tender under side of his wrist. TiMER was clearly made on a low budget, but screenwriters and filmmakers should note that it was written with that in mind and the high concept of this story does not need a large budget behind it. Wisely, the strongest aspect of the production design went into the timer devices and the places people go to get them installed. These timer stores and the way the employees behave reminds me of the homogeneous corporate feel of an Apple store. The timer employees wear their bright red shirts with pride and of course David has to quickly sign a release that he does not take the time to read before his timer is installed. As long as you don't go into it expecting 12 Monkeys, Minority Report or Terminator 2, I think you'll enjoy watching the path these characters take and all the comedy and drama that stems from it.

What makes this movie so interesting is the realistic way men and women are shown to react to this new technology and the way it makes you ask questions of yourself. Would you get a timer? Can you get it removed if you change your mind? If it said you will meet your soul mate in two years, would you not date during that time seeing it as a pointless endeavor? The science behind this device is wrong.... can it be wrong? This of course leads to the bigger question of defining what love truly is. The highly original premise of TiMER reminds us what this elusive sensation called love is all about.... possibilities.

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