Day 39 -- TiMER

Released: May 14, 2010

Starring: Emma Caufield, John Patrick Amedori, Michelle Borth, Desmond Harrington

Writer/Director: Jac Schaeffer

Description: If a clock could count down to the moment you meet your soul mate, would you want to know?

[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these films have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]

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There's always an interest light bulb that goes on in my mind when I see a new twist on a genre. Romantic comedies all usually come from the same place, usually a women is either unlucky in love or she's currently in a love triangle. Most astute movie watchers can sniff out where the story is going early on, especially in terms of the triangle because there's always one obvious choice.

"TiMER" takes the first premise and adds a twist on it. The TiMER is a scientific device that can determine the exact moment when you will meet your soul mate. It's truly meant to take the guess work out of relationships because your timer begins when you and your soul mate both buy the device.

Unfortunately, for Ooma (Caulfield) her TiMER hasn't started counting down, yet. Ooma (repeated her so you realize they named a character, Ooma) has become very pragmatic about her love life, and as she approaches 30, which includes 16 years of living with a blank TiMER, she becomes desperate to find her soul mate. But after meeting a younger guy, with whom there's no pressure because his doesn't run out for four months, she begins to forget about her pragmatic ways. Eventually, her TiMER begins to countdown, and it turns out to be the guy her sister is "dating". 

That's the only real twist, and it caught me slightly off guard. I'll admit when Dan (Harrington) was introduced, I thought he was the soul mate, but as the movie went along I thought he was more meant for Steph (Borth) because he wasn't seen much after the bar scene. But I guess my instincts were rusty because it was a quite obvious slight of hand, per se. I'm actually glad they didn't fall into the trap of having the young guy change his morals (not getting a TiMER) just to fulfill the audience expectation. The emotional response it drew from me when they said their final goodbyes in his apartment were appropriate, not melodramatic.

Caulfield did what she does best, be a neurotic, funny, quirky woman that can make you laugh and cry in the same role. Those of us that remember her as Ayna, the vengeance demon on "Buffy", already know the range she has as an actress. It's not all-time great range, but it's enough that the comedy, nor the drama looks forced.  Ooma is not one of her top performances, but it is another example of how she harness both sides of acting without over-acting.

The writing was pretty generic, and had a few decent callbacks at the end, but the stellar parts of the script were few and far between. Only a few scenes stand out in my mind: When they find out Mikey (Amedori) has a fake TiMER, when Jesse finds his soul mate, and the break-up scene in Mikey's apartment. The banter parts of the script work, especially most of Steph's scenes, but they suspend belief a little too much and have us believe that she hasn't been fired from her jobs, yet. 

It's a mediocre script from a pretty interesting idea, which brings up the question: If you could know, would you want to? This can be applied to love and death, and it's interesting to see the smart way they approached it in "TiMER", as opposed to "In Time", which had a bigger budget and more known leads. It's an interesting tale that if an idea's intriguing enough, good writing trumps a big budget and marketing.

Rating: 6.5/10 -- A romantic comedy with a twist, and a smart one for what it's worth. Caulfield is adorable, and Borth is pretty good as the smart aleck sister. If you like rom-coms, it worth checking out, but if you loathe them, then you can pass. I enjoyed it because I like new twist on old ideas.