Certificate: 15
Running Time: 90 mins
UK Distributor: Vertigo Releasing
UK Release Date: 11 October 2024
Alice Lowe, Jacob Anderson, Nick Frost, Aneurin Barnard, Tanya Reynolds, Mike Wozniak, Kate Dickie, Dan Renton Skinner
Alice Lowe (director, writer), Mark Hopkins, Vaughan Sivell, Natan Stoessel and Tom Wood (producers), Toydrum (composers), Ryan Eddleston (cinematographer), Chris Dickens and Matyas Fekete (editors)
A lovesick woman (Lowe) is reincarnated over different time periods, only to make the same mistakes…
As one of the very few critics who didn’t particularly care for Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast – a centuries-spanning look at reincarnated lovers finding each other and then drifting apart in increasingly surreal scenarios – I am very relieved that I enjoyed writer-director Alice Lowe’s Timestalker a hell of a lot more.
It, too, takes a look at what it is to encounter a supposed soulmate in one era, only to encounter a very different iteration of them in another, but with far less Mulholland Drive-inspired sub-plots featuring murderous incels (and is all the better for it), and an actual sense of direction as to what it wants to say, how to say it, and more importantly how to have as fun a time as possible while saying it.
Lowe’s film takes place over many more centuries than The Beast, with the filmmaker also playing a woman named Agnes, who we first meet in the year 1688 as a seamstress who becomes instantly besotted with a preacher named Alex (Aneurin Barnard), only to meet a grisly death that ends up benefitting only him. The same thing happens to Agnes over many different time periods in her reincarnated personas, who also interact with other reincarnated people such as Meg (Tanya Reynolds), Scipio (Jacob Anderson), and the brutish George (Nick Frost). These incarnations include, but aren’t limited to, an unhappily married aristocrat in 1793 who becomes attached to Alex’s masked highwayman; a fanciful magician’s assistant in 1940 who’s performing for Alex’s army officer; and in 1980, when he is an unobtainable music superstar, and she is his deeply obsessed fan who is convinced that he is her true love from across all those years.
As you can probably gather, the supposed romance in Timestalker is hilariously one-sided, as all of Agnes’s efforts to be with him, to where she gruesomely killed each and every time, are never reciprocated or even acknowledged by the blatantly self-serving Alex. However, rather than positioning the many versions of Agnes as an ultimately infallible hopeless romantic figure, Lowe explores some interesting psychological themes about becoming too unhealthily attached to someone, which at times leaves you feeling uncomfortable rooting for someone like her 80s incarnation, who is going full Fatal Attraction when it comes to getting her would-be lover to notice her. It delves into topics like erotomania, a delusional phenomenon that leads one to believe that a faraway figure is madly in love with them, which when applied to the multi-century antics of this film adds an intriguing layer to everything we have witnessed with this character, who in each timeline shows more than a few signs of madness.
Lowe gives her themes the appropriate amount of intensity, but often seasons them with some darkly funny humour that gives it a nice little kick. Some funny dialogue exchanges are delivered with a neatly dry attitude that elevates their comedic elements, while some humorous physicality performed by a lively cast – including Lowe herself, clearly making up for lost physical slapstick after being unable to do so in her first feature Prevenge, what with her actually being pregnant and all – adds to the overall farcical nature of the narrative. It ensures that you’re almost always laughing along with Lowe as she takes her pitiful character on grim variations of the same story, rather than at her clearly damaged psyche which could have easily opened up several uncomfortable questions about the nature of how we treat those with obvious mental conditions.
Aesthetically, Lowe ups her game considerably with her sophomore film. Some shots, provided by cinematographer Ryan Eddleston, look as though they’ve been plucked straight out of a Dario Argento film, with unusually colourful lighting and fogged-up lenses giving the vibe of something that could have been made in the 70s or 80s by the likes of Terry Gilliam or David Lynch. The director, who has been developing the project for many years, has a lot of fun playing around with various sets, costumes, soundtrack choices et al to guarantee that Timestalker as a whole is visually popping, not to mention providing some rather humorous sight gags that you’ll be giggling at long after they’re gone (“you look like an arse,” Alex comments about Agnes’s oversized heart-shaped wig in 1793). Lowe has clearly spent her elongated development period wisely, for the film is finely tuned to an almost impossibly impressive degree, both in her script and in her ultimate direction of the final product.
On occasion, the film will stumble as it attempts to cram in as much stuff as it can, whether it’s some visual symbolism or things for certain supporting players to actually do. As ambitious as Timestalker is, it does seem like Lowe was unable to part with all of her ideas during pre-production, and by trying to do it all at once she does every now and then lose sight of what she is trying to say in certain scenes. What she is able to naturally work in does offer a consistent amount of entertainment, but in those precious few moments it felt like a small bit of restraint was perhaps required for the sake of the viewing experience.
Other than that, Timestalker is a ferocious genre treat that is unique, insightful, funny, and especially entertaining to watch. It’s also proof that you can indeed make hard psychological studies of our romantic past lives whilst also having a bit of fun at the same time – looking at you, The Beast.
Timestalker is a fun exploration of erotomania via a time-hopping story of unrequited love, one that writer-director-star Alice Lowe sprinkles some strong humour and even stronger visual aesthetics onto, making it a pleasing and unique rom-com for the ages.
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