Continuum (15) Home Ents Review

 

This sci-fi drama from writer/director Richie Mehta sees Marika (the always excellent Gillian Anderson) and her young son, Erol wave her physicist husband Gabe (Rufus Sewell) off at the airport, never to see him again.  Gabe disappears without trace and it’s a traumatic event which those left behind never recover from.  We see how sad their lives become as Marika struggles with her grief and confusion and Erol with his sense of abandonment by the man he looked up to.

Years later, Erol (who is now played by Haley Joel Osment) is pondering studying at MIT thanks to his gift for quantum physics.  A further tragedy forces Marika’s father Sal (Victor Garber) to inform Erol that he has known for some time what happened to Gabe and that with his help, they may be able to change the events which have ruined their lives.

I don’t want to say any more about the plot, as there are lots of surprises in store, but what I can say is that I enjoyed this nice gentle film which evoked memories of Quantum Leap, Back to the Future and more recently The Butterfly Effect.

Continuum is obviously being marketed as a sci-fi film due to the appeal of Anderson, who is universally loved as Dana Scully in The X-Files and even Osment, who started his career with star turns in the mammoth genre hits The Sixth Sense and A.I. but don’t be put off if this genre is not for you.

At its core the film is really about family and is actually quite touching.  Thanks to the talent involved, what could have so easily been a maudlin movie of the week ends up being an interesting, well-acted drama.

Fusing all the best elements of classic sci-fi (time travel, the possibilities of the unknown, unexpected tragedies and ripple effects, i.e. changing one thing and ruining another) Mehta, who is surely a fan of the genre has written a well-crafted screenplay populated with well-drawn characters.  His direction is well-handled, the cinematography by Tico Poulakakis is assured and the score by Andrew Lockington is complementary of the piece overall.

The ending harks back to Osment’s Pay It Forward for a moment but thankfully, we come full-circle to a very satisfying conclusion.

If you want an all guns blazing conspiracy theory sci-fi movie then this probably isn’t the film for you.  If however you appreciate character development, pacing and drama you should hopefully enjoy this.  It’s never going to be the cult classic Back to the Future is or make as much money as The Butterfly Effect did (I doubt it will have as many sequels either), but it just might be that little indie film with a big heart that people will chatter about when recommending something a bit different.

Review by Phil Davies Brown

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Continuum is out now on digital platforms and DVD.    Buy from Amazon