TIMESTALKER - Mark Reviews Movies

Timestalker, Level 33 Entertainment

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | February 13, 2025

The tone of Timestalker exists somewhere between comedy and sincerity, or better, it all depends on what mood writer/director Alice Lowe wants to create at any given moment. The story here is suited to either approach, to be sure. It follows a woman or, more accurately, her consciousness/soul over the course of several centuries, as her reincarnated forms keep falling and/or settling for the wrong men at different periods of history.

This is, admittedly, kind of amusing, especially since the various incarnations of poor Agnes (Lowe) have a bad habit of putting those men above her own happiness, her own desires, and her very life. Agnes dies a lot here, almost always while trying to protect or save various versions of the same guy. It might seem romantic, except that the man in question has almost no interest in her no matter the era in which the two find themselves.

That man is Alex (Aneurin Barnard), who exists, at assorted times, as a sectarian prophet, a highway robber, and a rock star. In every period, Alex wants to be famous, and in every one, Agnes is either the only one who notices him or, as his celebrity grows with each reincarnation, the one who believes to adore and admire him the most.

That central joke certainly holds some promise, because the whole conceit takes on levels of absurdity and tragedy as these several Agneses keep going through the same motions over and over again. Each one also suspects that something might be amiss with her feelings for the guy and with the sinking notion that she is doomed for loving him. People want what they want and love whom they love, though, and within the schematic of Lowe's screenplay, that is equal parts absurd and tragic.

The problem, beyond the tonal shifts between the comedic and the existentially dire, is that the gag quickly becomes repetitive. Lowe has an intriguing premise in mind, but its execution is so shallow that it stops being funny and never quite offers much insight or actual variety within the time-spanning narrative.

It does, at least, offer a few shocks that might convince us the material is on to something. Take the opening segment (It really does feel like a series of historical comedy sketches cobbled together by the thin setup). This Agnes, living in the mid-1600s as a seamstress of sorts, only has her dog George, which always gets into trouble, and some other working women, who gather to gossip at town functions, to keep her company. One day, the whole village gets together to witness yet another public execution. The condemned is this timeline's Alex, who lives in the woods with a small cult of followers and has been convicted of heresy.

Agnes dies, as will become a pattern over the course of these different sections, but the timing and nature of her death lead to some twisted punch lines. They won't be revealed here, of course, because it's the one, consistently surprising joke the movie possesses.

Besides, the real point of the tale is that Agnes brings these deaths upon herself, almost always because she puts Alex's needs above her own. The screenplay features about half a dozen distinct time periods, with two of them making up the bulk of the actual movie. One immediately follows the introduction, seeing Agnes living an aristocratic life in pre-Revolution France. She's either bored with everything or terrified when her cruel husband returns home.

He's George, by the way, and as played by Nick Frost and with growling sounds playing under his movements, the character, as well as his other incarnations, is a metaphorical dog and, apparently, one on a more spiritual level, too. As for Alex, he's a thief living in the forest, and Agnes becomes obsessed with him after he tries to rob her carriage. Another major figure across time is Scipio (Jacob Anderson), who offers Agnes advice each time around, with most of it not exactly helping her to avoid an untimely death.

The other major section is set in New York City circa 1980, as Agnes keeps up a routine of aerobics, has trouble paying her rent, and pines for British rocker Alex, who lives in the city. By this point, we realize that Lowe isn't simply repeating the same story again and again. She also loads things with assorted metaphors (a bird in a cage being the most significant and on-the-nose one) and visions Agnes has of her different versions across time. While the filmmaker occasionally laughs at the movie's own self-seriousness (Agnes' constant confidant Meg, played by Tanya Reynolds, explains what happens to a domestic bird in the wild), that approach does eventually overwhelm the humor here.

The result is that the movie is never entirely convincing as a comedy or as a thoughtful examination of self-destructive love, the challenges of trying to be a truly independent individual, or its time-jumping conceit. Timestalker is a clever idea in need of some substance.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products