FAQ About Time Travel

The premise for this British film sounds like a joke from the outset: two geeks and a cynic walk into a pub… and thankfully it is very funny. Ray (Chris O’Dowd from IT Crowd) and Toby (Marc Wootton) are two 30-something geeks, the kinds of blokes who would happily at home at the SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival, especially the pub quiz. They have terrible McJobs that they are not very good at, and live in that fantasy world of sci-fi and writing the perfect blockbuster screenplay. Their friend Pete (Dean Lennox Kelly) is just as bad except he doesn’t believe in much, especially anything of a fantasy or sci-fi nature – and that includes religion. They all go to the pub for some beer and banter (and very witty, geeky banter it is) when Ray is approached at the bar by an attractive woman (Anna Farris) who claims to be from the future. Ray immediately suspects his mates are setting him up, but when Pete goes to the toilet and steps through a time portal into a future that looks a bit bleak, he has to try and explain to his friends what he saw and comedic mayhem ensues as zip forwards and backwards in time, without actually leaving the pub.

The strength of the film lies in its writing, which stays true to the conventions and rules of time travel, no matter how theoretical or fictitious they may be, and the comic timing of the three leads. Their conversations and reactions to the situations are pretty accurate to what I’ve seen and heard (and partaken in) around the festivals, not counting the time travel, of course – although time does seem to bend during the festival.

Comparisons with SHAUN OF THE DEAD are inevitable but this film is very much it’s own. In fact, it has been in development for quite some time and isn’t a hastily concocted sketch to cash in on the popularity of lead actors.

For a film about time travel, its timing isn’t very good, landing in the middle of a glut of big budget genre movies such as WOLVERINE, OUTLANDER and STAR TREK, not to forget our own festival with is smorgasbord of eclectic films and events. Do go and see it though, before the SFL kicks off. It’s a great little British movie, with characters you can relate to, lots of laughs and a good dose of serious sci-fi, which deserves to be supported.

FAQ ABOUT TIME TRAVEL is on general release from April 23 through Lionsgate.