Dir. Jac Schaeffer
Starring Emma Caulfield, Michelle Borth, John Patrick Amedori, JoBeth Williams, Desmond Harrington
Here's a independent film that shows Hollywood how to take a high concept premise and run with it. TiMer, directed by Jac Schaeffer and starring Buffy the Vampire Slayer alum Emma Caulfield, is a winning romantic comedy with appealing performances. The movie works because the filmmaker understands the high concept should be a complement to the story and not the only reason for it existing.
TiMer is set in a world where people can purchase a device that counts down to when they will meet their soulmate. The device goes on a person's wrist and it seems to be a level of social status as one of the first things people check for when meeting someone is if they've got a timer. Oona (Caulfield) has had one for a long time, but it is blank because her soulmate does not have a timer. So she is constantly bringing men she's dating to the place where they can buy their own TiMer, hoping to find a match. The twist happens when Oona ignores fate and begins dating Mikey, an aimless man who happens to have a timer and cannot possibly be her soulmate.
I appreciated how quickly the film introduced us to the premise. The very first scene is Oona taking one of her suitors to buy a timer. It not only sets up the premise efficiently, but is also a great introduction to the hard luck, empathetic main character. This is followed up with a nifty little advertisement explaining the premise (reminiscent of The Truman Show or Minority Report). This is a terrific way to go, because the filmmaker obviously has more on his mind than just the central conceit, so it makes sense to get that out of the way early and move forward with the story.
A great test for these films is if the story would be interesting at all if you removed the high concept. TiMer certainly succeeds here. Remove the premise and you have a typically sweet, low key indie romance. It wouldn't be anything groundbreaking, but it would definitely be entertaining and a key factor to that is lead performance by Emma Caulfield. She's an actress with a wonderful gift at mixing pathos and witty humor and finding the perfect balance between the two. Also strong is the supporting performance from Michelle Borth as her sister, whose timer is set far in the future so she engages in a series of meaningless sex encounters. The two actresses create winning characters with their engaging performances.
There are a few drawbacks here. Some of the supporting performances are decidedly one note (particularly JoBeth Williams as Oona's mom). The extremely low budget is very apparent from the beginning, especially with regards to the cinematography. It's a pretty ugly looking film, which certainly doesn't fit in with the tone of the story. However, even with these deficiencies TiMer remains a charming and funny movie that does a very good job of exploiting a clever idea.
