Clicky

SYNCHRONIC – Review – We Are Movie Geeks

Review

SYNCHRONIC – Review

By  | 

Okay, fright fans, Halloween’s just days away, how about a nice dose of the shivers? And maybe a bit of time-trippin’ fantasy. Oh, and just a pinch of social commentary, dished up by a couple of the busiest movie actors around. The commentary, well that’s about the current, now mostly legal, use of recreational drugs. So what if there were unforeseen side effects of an “over the dispensary counter” pill, one that somehow got through all the testing and trials? And you don’t need a souped-up DeLorean to “year-jumping”, but rather a lil’ white tablet. That’s a possibility when several characters in this new flick take a time trip on the “not-so-good” ship/pharmaceutical product called SYNCHRONIC.

After a prologue in which a couple goes on a nasty journey via a rec drug, we meet another couple, childhood buddies and overworked New Orleans EMTs Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan). Steve’s a hard-partying ladies man, while Dennis has a fairly steady homelife, with his wife Tara (Kate Aselton), punk/goth stylin eighteen-year-old Brianna (Ally Ionnides), and a near-newborn. They’ve been getting some weird calls lately, including one “druggie” almost run through with a centuries-old sword. And at each one of the “strange” rescues, Steve notices empty packets labeled “Synchronic”. When he accidentally pricks his finger on a needle, Steve goes in for a required check-up. He gets more than he bargained for. Nothing from the needle, but the doctor detects brain cancer, advanced. He could have weeks or months with treatment. Steve hides it from Dennis, who wonders why his pal is popping so much codeine during their night shifts. With little time left, Steve decides to take Synchronic off the street by buying out the local dispensary. As he leaves, another man arrives and offers to buy the pills from Steve at 2 or 3 times their cost. He declines and is later shocked that night when the same man breaks into his home. He’s the scientist behind the pills, who tells of a strange side effect for anyone under 20. Because of their uncalcified pineal gland, they can briefly “time shift”. Steve assures him that he flushed the pills. When the scientist leaves, Steve digs them out of the trash. Recently Dennis’s daughter Brianna disappeared without a trace. Could she have taken these? Because his cancer has cleaned his pineal gland to a much “younger” condition, Steve pops a tablet. Soon his living room “melts away’ to place him ankle-deep in a swamp, trapped by a gator and a charging saber-wielding conquistador. When his watch shows seven minutes have passed, he returns to his modern-day home. Later he finds that if he stands in different spots, he’ll go to other eras: the Ice Age, the 1920’s, etc. But he’s got to get back to that exact spot before his time’s up. Could this be what happened to Brianna? With the few pills he has left, can Steve track her down and bring her home before his own time runs out?

The audience’s acceptance of the story’s more fantastical elements really hinges on the solid performances of the two leads. Mackie, who is best known as Sam “The Falcon” Wilson in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, puts a tragic spin on this very different movie hero. Even before the awful diagnosis, his Steve goes about his daily life as though he was “half alive”. With the job that gives him all access to humanity often at its worst, he chooses to numb himself with booze and uninvolving “one night stands”. But we see that his limited future somehow gives his life a purpose, one heightened by his pal’s missing daughter. Still, Mackie often makes it difficult for us to “get behind him” as he shuts out his only real human connection. And Mackie, through his confused eyes, shows us that Steve’s just figuring it out as he goes, though he’s a meticulous planner. He tapes off and labels different spots in his house, makes sure his camcorder rolls when the pills kick in, and always dresses in layers in case he returns to the icy past (the first time makes him spend the rest of the night shivering in a warm bathtub). Dorman (who’s breaking out from those wretched 50 SHADES flicks) is more laid back as “workin’ stiff/family guy” Dennis. He too is emotionally wounded by his job, but finds comfort in the “nest” he’s made for his wife and kids. But he begins to crack as his buddy Steve seems to fade out of their friendship. And when his Brianna vanishes his “rock-steady” life quickly begins to crumble. Dorman conveys this man adrift with his downturned vision and sluggish pacing, making us hope that Steve will throw him a “lifeline” and pull him back in from despair. Aselton as his wife Tara goes from Dennis’ soothing partner to wounded matriarch striking back at him from hopelessness and fear. Ioannides as Brianna makes her a sweet but confused teen that still adores her folks despite her snarky retorts.

Veteran thriller directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (working from Benson’s script) lull us into a sense of unease in that opening sequence as we have a curious dread about the effects of the pills a couple has popped. Is it a hallucination that makes their bodies react with simulated wounds? This question plagues the doctors and the “5-0” as the “freaky fatalities” increase. The pacing of the first act tests our patience as our EMT duo drifts into one messy dwelling to an old theme park in a moonlit haze while the camera glides from room to room and body to body. But as Steve becomes pro-active the film gains more focus as it sets up its own set of “time rules”, though the “space dissolves” are fairly unsettling and woozy, perhaps to convey Steve’s disoriented state. At times it plays as an affectionate riff on “strange science” flicks like ALTERED STATES and time-changing thrillers like SOURCE CODE and FREQUENCY, but has an “off-putting” vibe all its own. If you’re in the mood to take a chance on a fantasy/horror hybrid, then a dose of SYNCHRONIC may be just what the cinema doctor prescribed.

Two and a Half Out of Four

Jim Batts was a contestant on the movie edition of TV's "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" in 2009 and has been a member of the St. Louis Film Critics organization since 2013.