Common Sense Media Review
By Sandie Angulo Chen
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Uneven sci-fi drama disappoints despite great cast.
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Needle in a Timestack
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What's the Story?
Based on sci-fi author Robert Silverberg's short story, NEEDLE IN A TIMESTACK is a futuristic romantic drama about Nick (Leslie Odom Jr.), who's happily married to Janine (Cynthia Erivo). In this future, however, people experience time warps due to the existence of time travel. After each time shift, depending on what the time traveler has changed, things in the newly changed future can be radically or subtly different: Dead people are alive again, co-workers have changed, and couples may no longer be together. People remember their other past only for an hour or two before forgetting it completely. After a brief warp, Nick believes that Janine's rich ex-husband (and Nick's former friend), Tommy (Orlando Bloom), has been taking advantage of the expensive time travel to make different decisions that keep him and Janine together. Nick grows increasingly jealous and even confronts Tommy -- so when the inevitable happens, Nick and Janine have only a few hours to reach out to each other before they forget about their shared past.
Is It Any Good?
Writer-director John Ridley's time-travel romance underwhelms despite a promising premise, talented leads, and interesting source material. Let's forget that seeing Tony winners Erivo and Odom on screen will make any musical theater fan long for them to break into song; the sad truth is that they don't share the necessary chemistry to pull off a sweeping love story. All of the romances in the movie are told to viewers rather than genuinely shown. There are several ponderous, quotable lines -- like "it's ending between them, but it's not over," "love is a circle; it never ends," and "the past is what brings us to where we need to be" -- but they don't pack the emotional punch that Ridley presumably imagined, because viewers won't be totally invested in any of the couples, whether it's Nick and Janine, Janine and Tommy, or Nick and his ex-girlfriend, Alex (Freida Pinto).
Strangely, Tommy doesn't come off as some rich, Machiavellian tyrant. He's heartbroken over his divorce and the fact that his former best friend ended up marrying his ex-wife, so it's all too easy to empathize with him. And the film seems just as interested in Nick's relationship with Tommy as it is in the central romantic relationship. If anything, the parts with Tommy (and Alex, and Tommy and Alex) are some of the movie's better bits, precisely because he seems more nuanced than Nick describes him. Nick himself is toxically jealous about Tommy (again, the men's interest in each other almost demotes Janine to being just the object of their affection, rather than a fully realized character in her own right). Another highlight is Jadyn Wong as Nick's sister; she's a rare voice of reason and a general bright spot in the movie. Reportedly this film was shot several years before it was released, and it shows. It's far from an award contender, and considering Ridley and the cast's combined pedigree, that's saying a lot. Let's hope a filmmaker considers making a movie with Odom and Erivo in which they can sing, because that would have been infinitely preferable to this uneven, meandering drama.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the messages in Needle in a Timestack. Do you think that people have one great love that can endure everything, or can people have many different love stories?
What would you do if time travel powers were possible? How would you use those powers?
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the various romantic relationships in the movie? How do you think filmmakers want viewers to feel about each couple?
Movie Details
- In theaters : October 15, 2021
- On DVD or streaming : October 19, 2021
- Cast : Leslie Odom Jr. , Cynthia Erivo , Orlando Bloom , Freida Pinto
- Director : John Ridley
- Inclusion Information : Black Movie Director(s) , Black Movie Actor(s) , Female Movie Actor(s) , Bisexual Movie Actor(s) , Indian/South Asian Movie Actor(s)
- Studio : Lionsgate
- Genre : Science Fiction
- Run time : 111 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : some language
- Last updated : September 14, 2023
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