Danielle Panabaker: Official Trailer ‘Time Lapse’
In a sleepy apartment building, three 20-something roommates discover their scientist neighbor dead. Within his apartment they find a giant experimental machine that takes pictures 24 hours into the future. The camera is aimed into the trio’s apartment, continuing to run and showing glimpses of their life a day in advance.
Armed with this revelation, the three conspire to exploit the machine’s abilities. After enjoying the power of being one step ahead in life, disturbing images begin to arrive. A tense love-triangle emerges, and a sinister enemy begins sniffing around. The relationships begin to unravel and the trio descends into a dark future they no longer have control of.
Review: Time Lapse
by Dave Ollerton
Rating: 
4/5In Time Lapse (website here and IMDB here), three friends discover a camera which shoots images twenty four hours into the future.
If that simple yet ingenious premise is one that intrigues you, then rest assured that in the able hands of writer/director Bradley King and Writer/Producer BP Cooper, Timelapse delivers on its promise.
A twisty turny thriller emerges (with some darkly comedic moments thrown in) in which greed, desire, manipulation and murder all weave a twisted web.
The three housemates in question are a would-be painter Finn (Matt O’Leary) who is suffering from creative block (and who also doubles as the buildings manager in a small housing complex they live in), his girlfriend Callie (Danielle Panabaker), a waitress/writer and Jasper (George Finn), the couple’s pill-popping, dog-race gambling friend/housemate. When the trio discover that the scientist across the street has died, they also find a huge machine bolted to the floor of his living room. The machine is spitting out photos of their own living room window at 8 o clock every evening – and it doesn’t take them long to realize that the photos are of twenty-four hours into the future. Finn can see the paintings that he is going to paint, Jasper can tell himself which dogs are going to win on which races, and Callie can quit her day job (as a result of Jasper’s winnings) to focus on her writing. A simple plan is created, which necessitates them keeping the scientist’s untimely demise secret.
Time Lapse sets up its characters and introduces the time predicting camera in a refreshingly economical and speedy manner, and it takes all of about five minutes after the set-up has been established before the trio’s plan starts its inevitable descent into mayhem. As the machine spits out photo after photo, the three realise (or believe) that they are trapped by what the camera reveals is about to happen, and have to form a tableux every day exactly as the image dictates – even if this means that Callie and Jasper have to lip-lock behind Finn’s back. And then a villainous bookie/gangster starts to become more than a little interested in Jasper’s sudden lucky streak of wins…
Essentially a (mostly) one location three hander, with a few supporting characters. Time Lapse succeeds on several levels. All three actors turn in fine performances, the scripting is tight and the limitations of the film really don’t get in the way of the story or your enjoyment of it, whilst the excellent, suspenseful soundtrack keeps you in anticipation of the next dark twist. With an impressive pedigree of film influences in the mix, including Rear Window, Shallow Grave, Time Crimes and (of course) A Simple Plan, you can pretty much guess from the off that things are not going to work out well. But the journey as to how things go to the dogs, and where the trio end up is well worth the time spent on this film which rarely slows down. Both George Finn and Matt O’Leary create believable characters, with the obvious differences between them slowly becoming magnified, but special praise should be reserved for Danielle Panabaker who makes Callie a fully convincing character in a role where a less capable actress might have struggled to convincingly portray her different aspects.
Keeping the time travel logical loops to a minimum (this isn’t Primer, so it won’t have your head in too many knots by the end of it), Time Lapse prefers to focus on character and plot rather than get itself embroiled in the headaches of spaghetti-like causality issues. This is no bad thing in this instance, and avoiding the obvious temptation to start playing in that field keeps the film firmly focussed.
A terrific, tight and twisted time travel thriller - and yet another great find by the London Independent Film Festival, where a Private Sneak Preview was on offer. Time Lapse will have its official UK Premiere at Sci-Fi London on May the 3rd, and comes recommended. Proof once again that a strong idea, well written, directed and acted can work out just as well if not better as bigger budget counterparts.
And there’s even a sneaky bit of room left in there for a sequel…
So, to round off; Time Lapse is a dark, independently produced gem of a sci-fi thriller with some serious touches of black comedy thrown into the mix.
Are you really surprised I liked it?
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