Playing July 27 & 28th at Fantasia Film Festival and select theatres starting Aug 11.
Nearly everyone knows that travelling into the past is dangerous. When that person changes one tiny, insignificant thing, like in Sophie does in Aporia, everything else becomes altered in ways that can’t be predicted. That butterfly effect is effectively explored in Jared Moshé’s film.
Instead of weighing viewers with science, everything waxed here is more existential than philosophical jabber. For better or worse, the device Jabir (Payman Maadi) made is an oversized gun that can fire bullets through the fabric of time and space. It should be confiscated by the FBI, since it can kill anyone this physicist wants. The only person he chooses to reveal this weapon to is the wife of his best friend, Sophie (Judy Greer). Ever since Mal (Edi Gathegi) was struck by a drunk driver and put six feet under, life has never been the same. But now that she has an opportunity to alter the past, will she do it?
The question of accepting the challenges thrown at you is at the heart of this film, and as for taking the easy way out, is it worth it? The consequences are far scarier than one would think, and this gentle thriller works very well to explore those what ifs. Unlike other movies where time travel is involved, there’s no redo and there’s no take back either.
I rather enjoyed this low-fi examination of an overused sci-fi concept. It’s rare to find a film that dares to show the ripple effect of one’s time travelling shenanigans. Mal should be dead, and Sophie should accept that fact. But she can’t. This woman is having a hard enough time raising Riley (Faithe Herman). With no father around, she’s lashing out. And since this film has no ounce of speculative extravagance, there’s no boogie man chasing after them. While other films like to go the fantasy route to solve things, what’s presented here is delightfully perfect.
What this filmmaker delivers is more thoughtful than something out of a fantasy film. Sometimes, to change your life around is not meant to happen. Some aspects of it are indeed like a fixed point, and to compare this to the recent The Flash movie shows that you can’t alter fixed points in time or allow someone to live whilest another dies. This cinematic presentation does a better job at examining the psychological consequences and as for how one can live with those choices made, that’s better left to see than to have me tell you about it.
5 Stars out of 5
Aporia Movie Trailer
