Forward to the past

Film review: Project Almanac

MANILA, Philippines - Directed by Dean Israelite and co-produced by Michael Bay, Paramount’s Project Almanac takes a timeworn premise — time travel — and gives it a teenage twist, plus a handheld found footage approach. The premise actually works as the film starts off in a brisk manner and lives up to its billing as a teenage treatment of time travel. It is only in the last part of the film, and in the film’s coda that the film falters and ends up being less than the sum of its parts. Despite this, and the lukewarm reception it received in the United States, its intended young audience should find much to enjoy and my youngest son (Luca, 16 years old) declared it “a fun ride that given the sci-fi nature of the film does leave a lot of questions unanswered but is enjoyable.”

Johnny Weston is David Raskin, a science buff who has been accepted to MIT, but on a partial scholarship that leaves his widowed mother wondering how she’ll afford the tuition. Along with his two best friends and younger sister, David tries to find a way to make his dream come true by going through the papers and unfinished projects of his late father, himself a scientist. They uncover plans for a Temporal Relocation device, and what happens then is what makes for the film’s storyline. The tone of the section of the film is a charmer: While they make loose such remarks as killing Hitler, that’s immediately shot down humorously with the comment that none of them speak German! More realistic agendas are then put forward like passing a Chemistry exam, revenge on a bully, finding love, attending Lovapalooza (MTV co-produced the film) and winning the lottery to become financially secure... and popular.

When the ripple effect of changing the past rears its ugly head, the film suddenly shifts to a darker, more serious tone, and this marks the weakness of the film’s development. Unlike Chronicle, which I feel this film owes allegiance to, and had a more consistent storyline, Almanac loses its footing at this juncture and limps to its conclusion. Fortunately, there are enough moments to have made the viewing worthwhile. For the teen audience the film was designed for, the very real aspirations and application of time travel exhibited in the film should linger and be more than enough reason to keep the film a winner. Also noteworthy is the fact that one of David’s friends Adam is played by Allen Evangelista, born in Los Angeles, of Filipino descent.