Time Code
rated R 97 minutes Screen Gems starring Jeanne Tripplehorn, Salma Hayek, Stellan Skarsgard, Saffron Burrows, and Kyle MacLachlan written and directed by Mike Figgis
A Review by Frankie Paiva
I believe it's unfair to call Time Code an actual movie. The word experience is a better fit. The Time Code experience involves the screen being split into four different images, each with a different character focus, as they all play at the same time. The sound gets turned up on the one Figgis wants you to watch. One could describe it as watching four different shows on MTV all at once. The story relies heavily on this split screen factor and this is a very visual film with little complicated dialog. It has to be. Even with a slightly complicated plot, this movie would have been even more of a frenzy of annoying pointless images than it was. Essentially, a frenzy of annoying images describes the film well. This film is a foray into the different and the unusual, but carries little meaning. While Figgis has created a groundbreaking filmmaking approach, he seems concentrated on making sure the audience can handle it, rather than keep an interesting storyline going. It has been a long time since a movie has challenged you in such a way as this one does, but I felt it could have been even more challening if trust was put in the audience. Time Code dares to go freeform, and encourages the viewer to look at these characters and their surroundings with lightning fast comprehension before moving onto the next frame. Like any new method to come onto the film scene, it will take time to master, but consider Time Code the beginning of a new era in film.
The movie was shot entirely in one afternoon last November using hand-held cameras. There are no edits. Everything is real time. There is no set plot structure either. While Figgis gave his actors basic character outlines, he decided it would be much more interesting if the film was almost entirely improvisational. This is both an attraction and a detraction. There are times when you sense the actors come up with things right off the top of their heads, and those parts of the film are exciting and fun. Character reactions are a key part of this movie that centers around Red Mullet Productions (both the producers and setting for this film) during auditions for a new movie. In the upper left corner Rose (Wild Wild West recovering Salma Hayek) is going to the audition with Lauren (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Rose and Lauren are lovers, and the latter suspects infidelity. In the upper right, Emma (Saffron Burrows, Figgis's wife) consults her psychiatrist about her husband Alex (Stellan Skarsgard) whom she suspects is cheating on her. Alex is indeed cheating on her, and he occupies the lower right frame. Finally, in the bottom left is an aspiring actress that comes to audition for the lead role at Red Mullet.
After this basic setup, the camera roams free. Characters pop up in two different frames at once, or switch frames entirely. It's interesting to see how this effect gets used. One scene that I found bizarre involved Alex and an anonymous female having sex behind a movie screen. The screen was being used to show actresses moaning loudly from sexual pleasure during an audition for a group of executives. Another common element that unites the characters is the frequent bothersome earthquakes. Much care must have been taken into the timing to make the illusion of an earthquake appear in all four parts at the same time. These tremors that connect the characters continuously reminded me of the character connecting amphibians from the end of Magnolia. The ensemble cast that includes Steven Weber, Holly Hunter, Julian Sands, Leslie Mann, and Laurie Metcalf, as well as the actors mentioned above, have fun with their roles. It's no surprise though that the movie is inconsistent, but by the hour mark, I found myself comfortably able to grasp all that was going on. Time Code is almost interactive. It allows people to get a different experience of the movie each time they see it. The themes are the same though. Woe, jealousy, and betrayal all occupy different parts of the screen often. Everyone is cheating on everyone, and all the women are lesbians. Late in the film a young female independent filmmaker comes forward with an idea of new age filmmaking. "The end of editing is upon us!" she preaches. "Imagine a movie with four different images all running at the same time." Alex blows this idea off, and cannot control his laughter at the proposal. He tells her what a load of crap he thinks it is. She takes the criticism surprisingly well, and replies with a thank you stating he's the only honest person she has ever met in Los Angeles. By the time it reaches the conclusion, the facade of quality and honesty in Time Code is gone. It was then I realized the emptiness that ran through this movie. While Time Code is definitely worth seeing for the very original concept it presents, there's no hiding that little actual material lies under its surface.
B-
Frankie Paiva SwpStke@aol.com http://www.homestead.com/cinemaparadise/moviereviews.html
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