This film asks some fantastic nonlinear questions of human capabilities and comprehension regarding our relationship to timespace; however, since it's a Hollywood rendering of speculative fiction it answers them with densely linear logic. Doug Carlin (Denzel) is charged with unraveling a terrorist act against civilians in New Orleans, and in the midst of doing so stumbles into governmental technology that allows him to venture into the past. Throwing in quite a few quantum physics buzz words to seemingly seal the logic behind the mysterious technology or either confuse the clueless, the writers were accurate in relaying the current theories and scientific conjecture. Other films (Minority Report) have perhaps done the metatechno better than this one, but I still thought it stood up well. However, there were gaping holes in the fictionalized aspects of the technology, that really only served to further confuse what would otherwise have been a really cool premise. Given the twist of timing, transitions between the present and past were well edited and moved the flow along nicely.



I really didn't want to see this film slide into a romance, as it was clear that Carlin was falling for the damsel. Luckily it made only passing acknowledgment of attraction, which was so slight that it was in perfect character. Blending scifi and action genres worked well for this content, though. Along that line, Denzel is a gifted actor, and he does really well in this film. It's no stretch for him to play a vigilante racing against time to forestall some twisted fate. This character could have been any one of about four roles he's done already. Paula Patton (damsel) is absolutely gorgeous and did well in this role. James Caviezel was mesmerizing, as a bad guy should be, and he really stood out in terms of how he brought the role to life. Considering his performance I also have to accept that the one character who seemed to have a metaphysical understanding of timespace was also crazy. Val Kilmer's character was either under represented in this film or unnecessary, and as such I'm not even sure of the purpose of his character. His presence did not move the plot forward in any way that another of the more meaningful cast (Adam Goldberg) couldn't have accomplished.



In short, no ground be broken here. It's an interesting film, well acted, well directed. Just don't look to it for anything more than that.