REVIEW: Needle in a Timestack

Needle in a Timestack, directed and adapted by John Ridley, best known for 12 Years a Slave, which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the TV series, American Crime, stars Leslie Odom, Jr., Orlando Bloom, Freida Pinto, and Cynthia Erivo.

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD.

This near-future sci-fi releases in theaters on October 15^th. The film follows Nick and Janine’s love story as Nick travel’s literally through time, changing the events just enough to make sure he ends up with his soulmate. Begging the question, how far would you go for love?

This film has a ton of twists and turns that will keep viewers engaged until the end. The movie is based on a 1996 sci-fi short story from critically acclaimed sci-fi author, Robert Silverberg, who has won several Hugo and Nebula Awards, for a few of his other works. Janine, played by Cynthia Erivo, and Nick, played by Leslie Odom, Jr., live in complete marital bliss until Janine’s ex literally goes through time himself causing little time rifts, just enough to cause little blips in the beginning. In the end, he changes it so much so that Nick never ended up with Janine, and Nick, determined to get his soulmate back, practically gives up everything he has to time jaunt back to the one moment in his life he thinks could change everything, and it does.

Nick is an architect and his wife, Janine, is a photographer, who are both happy in marriage. In their near future, there are time shifts that mostly don’t affect anything, but they’ve been happening more often, and Nick is convinced that Tommy, his ex-friend, and Janine’s ex-husband, is going back in time to break them up completely so that Tommy, played by Orlando Bloom, can have his wife back. Janine thinks her husband is paranoid, but it’s little things that shift at first. They had a dog, but then end up with a cat, and he hates cats.

With these time shifts, they often ask each other key questions like “What’s their name?” “Where do they live?” and “Who are they married to?” in order to make sure they haven’t forgotten the important things. His paranoia proves that the only thing more fleeting than time itself is happiness because the more paranoid he becomes, the further apart it seems like he and Janine grow for a split second. Nick is so paranoid that he puts his memories in Past Protect, a place that stores memories from the time phases.

Both Janine and Nick meet up with Tommy separately. Janine tells Nick that if they didn’t antagonize Tommy things would have been fine. Janine mentions to Nick that he gave her a gift, and it’s then that Nick realizes that Tommy has been spying on them the whole time. He breaks the gift outside their house. He’s convinced, now more than ever, that Tommy is determined to get his ex-wife back. Janine tells Nick that the only one that can really break them up is them. In a video, she confesses that “love is strong in the form of a circle. No one knows when it begins and it never really ends. They’re forever. We’re forever, always, and always.”

Nick and Janine seem to be pulling further away from one another, but Nick realizes how wrong he was and how all he needs is Janine. He convinces her to run away with him and be together always and always. She agrees, but at the airport, a huge time shift happens and it seems as though Tommy has succeeded. Janine is now with Tommy again, and Nick is with his ex, Alex, played by Freida Pinto. While he seems to be okay married to Alex, they have a dog, and his job is the same, something is off.

They pull apart for a bit, and it seems like they’re going to split, but Nick and Alex become closer again for a while, but they talk about how Nick never talks to Tommy anymore, and Nick tells Alex why he pulled away from him, but Alex tells him that just because Tommy had a ton of money didn’t mean he had a ton of friends. Alex was the one who used to help him and used to be his shoulder to cry on. All Tommy ever wanted was for Alex and Nick to be happy, but it’s in that moment that Nick realizes that Alex should have been with Tommy all along.

Nick’s sister, Zoe, played by Jaydn Wong, best known as Happy on the CBS hit show, Scorpion, who seems to either have been an adopted sister, or perhaps they were fosters together, tells her brother that she went back in time to save her best friend, Sibila, who had actually died climbing because she couldn’t lose her best friend like that, so she went time jaunting, and changed the past so they never went climbing that day so Sibila never died.

Zoe knows the truth about what happened, but Sibila is alive and happy and they’re still happy together and that’s all that matters to her. It doesn’t matter it cost her almost everything. Nick decides that he needs to time jaunt himself, and goes back to La Jolla thirteen years ago when he was sick and didn’t make it to the beach. He ends up going to the beach and having a heart-to-heart with Tommy, and tells him he’s breaking up with Alex, and that Tommy should be with Alex. He leaves himself a note and leaves.

When Nick wakes up from his time jaunt, he’s alone. He has a lonely existence: work, eat, sleep, repeat. He meets up with his sister, who tells him she wants to make sure he celebrates his upcoming birthday. Ever since she’s known him, he’s always been depressed, but she just wants him to be happy. Nick gets a call from Tommy who convinces him to come to the loft for a party and after one drink he can leave. Nick hesitates but agrees to go. At the party, Alex is now married to Tommy. She talks to Nick. She tells him at first, she was upset when he broke up with her years ago, but it really was for the best. If they didn’t break up, she wouldn’t have grown closer to Tommy, and she wouldn’t be pregnant. Hearing that news, he tries to leave, but his eyes meet with the photographer there, and it’s Janine. He hesitates again but stays. It seems as though they remember one another, proving that soulmates, no matter the situation their put into, are meant to be together.

With powerhouse hitters, like Tony-Award winning actress, Cynthia Erivo, Tony-Award winning actor, Leslie Odom, Jr., and Screen Actors Guild Award winners, Freida Pinto and Orlando Bloom, Needle in a Timestack is one worth watching. It was released in theaters on October 15.