Reminiscent, but clearly not as good as last year's "Sliding Doors," "Twice Upon A Yesterday" is yet another entry in the "if only/what if" second chance scenarios that often prove to be good movies, but sometimes work better in concept than realized execution. Having popularized storytelling for ages, such plots play off the audience's common feelings of regret regarding past events they wish they could have changed.
From Dickens trendsetting "A Christmas Carol" to "It's A Wonderful Life," "Groundhog Day" and Gwyneth Paltrow's pre-Shakespearean film, these stories are about people getting another chance -- and occasionally many if you're Bill Murray -- to relive some part of their lives and make them better by correcting past mistakes.
Initially entitled "If Only," the film, while similarly dealing with an unfaithful boyfriend and a time bending second chance at a better life, doesn't follow the simultaneous split personality plotting that made "Sliding Doors" so much fun. Instead, it follows the more traditional "rewind time and fix things" thrust.
As such, the story follows the standard plot where the self-absorbed character realizes their errant ways, mysteriously gets a chance to fix them, and then sets out to do so. While this film does offer a moderately interesting destiny and/or fate versus free will "argument," it also contains a few problems that prevent it from being as compelling or entertaining as it might have been.
First, it enacts its time travel magic -- an element that involves an odd and awkward appearance by several Don Quixote-based sanitation workers -- a bit too early in the story. For any such plot to work properly, we really need to know about the character and their current situation. While both are presented here on a superficial level, the payoffs in the "second chance" part of the story aren't as strong as they could have been simply because they weren't perfectly set up by the material preceding the "time travel."
Although we witness Victor's happiness at suddenly being in the past and of him greeting his old theater buddies, we don't feel the same joy because the transference comes too soon and we never saw those particular friends in the first half. One easily gets and can appreciate the idea, but never fully empathizes with the protagonist.
The film also makes a crucial mistake -- in my opinion -- by not going back far enough in time before Victor's amorous indiscretion. Since we only travel to the pivotal moment where he's already had the affair but now decides not to tell Sylvia of it, he still comes off as a complete cad to us, no matter the filmmakers' intentions. Had the film allowed him to completely cleanse himself of his sins -- so to speak -- and start anew, the audience would have really gotten behind him.
While the plot does give him something of a deserved comeuppance in an interesting, later story development, the damage is still done. The choice of the lead actor for the role and the way in which he plays the character as written doesn't help such matters either.
Looking and acting like a disheveled cross between Kenneth Branagh and Eric Stoltz, Douglas Henshall ("Kull the Conqueror"), never quite feels right as a character for which someone would want to root. In addition, one can't imagine that his character's demeanor and/or behavior would endear him to any women, let alone cause the ones in this film to fall for him. As such, the picture flounders without a strong lead performance.
Playing the parts of those women who make bad choices in men, Lena Headey ("Mrs. Dalloway," TV's "Merlin") and Penélope Cruz ("Open Your Eyes," "The Hi-Lo Country") do fare better than their male counterpart. Even so, they still aren't significantly developed enough to make them completely believable characters. Due to that sparse character development and related plot deficiencies, none of the characters manage to grab the moviegoer's empathy for their individual or collective plights.
As directed by María Ripoll (making her feature film debut) who works from Rafa Russo's first produced screenplay, the film has its moments, but never takes a stand about what kind of story it wishes to be. It's never magical enough -- beyond the brief appearance of those sanitation workers -- to make it a fun fantasy, nor is it properly developed to come off as a memorable romantic drama, let alone a comedy.
While the filmmakers have made sure to insert some blatant, plot-related symbolism -- a friend telling Victor that he can't dwell on the past, and the whole trash dump littered with things (and apparently relationships) that people have carelessly thrown away or lost -- they fail to give their work the polished finish it so desperately deserves. Thus, it has that feel of an interesting concept pulled from the oven before it was completely done.
That said, the proceedings are almost always somewhat interesting to watch as the "second chance" scenario -- just as is the case in other similarly plotted films -- offers some fun sci- fi/fantasy type moments and revelations. Although the film never lets on about whether the second chance elements are reality, a fantasy/dream, or a drunken hallucination, it at least turns what seems like an unhappy ending into the possibility for another go round.
Lacking the star power of a Gwyneth Paltrow or a completely compelling and properly thought- out script that could take advantage of the myriad "second chance" possibilities, the film offers a few decent fantasy morsels, but never quite gets up to full speed in telling its story.
While recording artist Cher may sing "If I could turn back time...," the audience for this movie may wish that the filmmakers could rewind the film and make it just a little bit (or perhaps a lot) better. Okay and easy enough to watch, but certainly nothing special, "Twice Upon a Yesterday" rates as a 4.5 out of 10.
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