As a sheer experiment in filmmaking, "Timecode" is audacious but as human drama, it fails to evoke much of an emotional response, though it has selective moments of humanism and it is often compelling.
"Timecode" takes place during a hazy afternoon in Los Angeles near Sunset Boulevard where a "creative meeting" is taking place among ad executives in an office building, and other events occur with different characters outside the building and beyond, including a psychiatrist's office and a limo that travels from some mansion to the aforementioned building. I don't want to sound too general with such a description, but that is about it. The characters merely float by us, making little introductions and soundbites. If this sounds like a documentary, in many ways, it is. Let me explain further.
As directed by Mike Figgis ("Leaving Las Vegas"), "Timecode" was shot in real time using four digital cameras that each recorded up to 93 minutes of footage in one single continuous take. Not only is this the longest long take ever devised on film (shot of course on video and then transferred to film), but it is also the first film to ever have four 93 minute takes in four quadrants of the screen projected at the same time. The idea of breaking up the screen in four quadrants is not a new visual trick but an entire film viewed in this manner is new and something to behold. Often, Figgis will drown out sound from one or more quadrants to focus on something significant in another. This aural technique makes me wonder why Figgis did not cut the film to focus on what he wanted us to be attentive to. Perhaps this is my own problem of trying to discover what the director intended but I much rather see such an experiment used as part of the underlying story, as opposed to just for the sake of style.
Some of the basic characters include a coke-sniffing security guard (Danny Huston), a jealous lesbian (Jeanne Tripplehorn, who spends most of the film in a limo), another lesbian with hopes of movie stardom (Salma Hayek), an attentive psychiatrist (Glenn Headley), and the founder of a film studio (Stellan Skarsgard) who is coming apart at the seams over a failed relationship. Skarsgard makes the biggest impression, creating a full-bodied character portrait of a lost soul, whereas the other characters sort of drift by, including a barely audible Holly Hunter as an ad exec. I did enjoy the frenetic Richard Edson, an unsung actor to be sure, as a low-budget film director with drug problems.
Despite what is a literally mind-boggling visual experience to endure, the film is still quietly fascinating, and there are moments that break up the quiet, stately style such as a series of earthquakes, some screaming fits and a chilling finale. The use of music by Gustav Mahler gives the film some punch. All in all, a semi-successful experiment that will hopefully lead to more exciting uses for such an innovative technique. Although it is draining and sometimes repetitive, "Timecode" is certainly brave and risky fare. Just what we would expect from Mike Figgis.
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