ShangLuda Admirable film.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

gengar843 TIMER pretends to be forward-thinking, then "ironically" twists it so that intuitive human love is correct after all without any gadgets. This to me makes the entire premise anti-human on two levels: (1) that we as a species would actually do something this stupid, (2) that we're just monkeys without the gadgets. So, damned if we do, damned if we don't.What this does is justifies the promiscuity, the "blazing hot anonymous sex" with strangers that passes the time until you meet "the one," or else the "it doesn't matter anyway" attitude because "the one" is coming anyway. The movie is furthermore told from an upper-class perspective, so there is the usual digs at privileged living (boring for me to watch). In the same vein, there is a misanthropic anger at people the writer(s) don't particularly like, such as Mary in the nursing home, in a brief scene that really sums up the viciousness of this film.The tender music score belies this boiling anger at love and life. As many have already pointed out, the ending is a middle finger to the entire move, as well as the audience for having participated. It's like they weren't sure whether to fulfill the technological destiny of the vision or go with a complete reversal of our thoughts on Timer, period, but went for a ridiculous middle ground, "whatever turns you on." Besides hedonistic, this is against the premise, that it's NOT whatever turns you on but rather what is supposed to be long-term right for you ,as when Oona met with her father, who seemed to have some insight into destiny - but, stupidly, only because he had a timer :-/Good acting, I guess, for this nonsense. Attractive cast. Good form and pacing. But it's like a pleasant classic statue with paint splotched all over it intentionally. It's supposedly a message but it's really more like a tantrum.

arthousefilms-68-939717 ******************SPOILER ALERT - This movie had me from the beginning. It was a fun, high-concept, fantasy with quirky story beats and solid casting. I was along for the ride for the whole movie until Oona ends up with the wrong guy at the end, her step-sister's boyfriend. The entire movie was spent building relationship chemistry between Oona and Mikey, only to have it yanked out from us at the end. The ending felt very manipulative and forced because we were rooting for Mikey and Oona to be together.A cool way to have treated this, would have been to have Mikey's newly installed timer zero out in a past time in history when he was at the surprise party and Oona's timer was going off. It could have easily worked that Oona's timer was for Mikey and Steph's boyfriend's timer was for Steph (because she had hers removed). But, I guess if I didn't watch the movie's ending scene, I would have loved this film.

thompson-ru I was actually genuinely enjoying this film. It was challenging notions of true love in a way that was actually challenging - if you met someone and fell in love, would you give up true love for them? Steph isn't going to meet anyone any time soon and has decided to take a chance with Dan. Oona is delaying living her life because of the possibility that at any moment, her time could suddenly change. They both decide together to get their timers removed, inspired by someone who is absolutely certain the person she is with isn't her "one" and simply no longer cares. I think the movie should have ended there. Mikey even says it: our lives should have a little bit of mystery. Everything suggested that the movie was going to end there. And then Prince Charming comes waltzing in and devastates three people's romances. But it's okay, because they're "destined to be together."This movie fails on a comedy level because of the serious twist ending, it fails on a romance level because there is nothing romantic about the meeting of any person with a timer we see. I as an audience member was rooting for Mikey and Oona, I was rooting for Steph and Dan. And then to have those relationships shunted to the side just because that wasn't the true path means I just wasted my time watching these people waste their time.I have a lot of questions that this movie throws in the air and then doesn't answer. How many people's timers have suddenly stopped working because the other person got the timer removed? Is there just a craigslist out there of people looking for people who got their timer's removed? What happens if someone's "the one" has died before they met? Do they qualify to be a "the one" then? What about the fact that Oona is a child of a "doomed" relationship? If Oona had never been born because her dad had never been with her mom, would Dan have wound up with Steph instead? Or would he just have never had a "the one?" All the couples we see are roughly the same age, but if this is based just on chemistry, isn't it possible there could be some really uncomfortable pair-ups? People with language barriers? People with age differences? What's gonna happen when her dad meets "the one?"This movie could have said something really progressive about the problematic nature of serial monogamy. Instead, as far as this movie is concerned, you really are wasting your life on every romantic encounter you have until you meet "the one" and no matter who they are or whether your sister is also in love with them, you have an obligation to yourself to chase after them. I feel hollow and frustrated and disappointed now.

Zev A sci-fi romantic comedy with an intriguing concept: A gadget is invented that lets you know exactly when you will meet 'The One', getting rid of 'all the guesswork'.This movie does some interesting things with it, but not enough, and then it stops being interesting for a flat ending.It deals with a woman who has decades of waiting to do and shows how she is resigned to her fate and only has one-night stands in the meantime, preferably with 'timer-guys' since they aren't 'conflicted'.It explores another woman who's timer is blinking because her One hasn't gotten a timer yet, and her frustrating search for him, trying to get her dates to put on a timer to know for sure if she should stay with them.It also briefly touches on a case of a young boy who meets his One when he is 14 and still inexperienced and confused.But that's as interesting as it gets. I had a million questions and ideas while watching the movie, but the movie just lazily attaches a predictable ending, and you can see they just stopped thinking at a certain point.For example, the young boy: What is the damage to someone who sees his life already mapped out for him at 14? Wouldn't he possibly lash out and try to have sex with as many other girls as possible?If the timer 'only confirms what you already know', then why was the timer's revelation at the end so obviously wrong for everyone? Where are the organized groups of people against the timer? Pick a reason: Religion, adventure-seekers, bohemians, people who don't believe in the One, or in monogamy, etc etc.Why did Steph want to remove the timer? She already knew what it says that it would take 14 more years... there would be no change in her mind after removing it.Why did Dan get a timer after he was so sure that he already had the One and seemed so against it?Technically, how can the Timer read 'Oxytocin' levels ('the hormone of love') if you haven't fallen in love yet? But I suppose one has to ignore things like this and suspend disbelief for a while...And lots of interesting questions that this movie never explores: What if you are supposed to have two Ones (one after the other)? What if you fall in love with two people at once? Why don't people ever doubt the Timer? What if you are supposed to get some life experience with someone who isn't the One before you meet the One? What happens if you meet the One but then screw it up by cheating on them? Why aren't there people who never meet the One? Why don't people think of these and many more questions like these in this movie? And if the Timer is really only measuring hormones, then these questions are perfectly valid and many more like them.And then there's the ending: A confused and unsatisfactory mess. So they force themselves to get to know each other and suddenly avoid people they really care for just because the Timer told them to... not exactly a happy ending, and it doesn't go with what the Timer is all about as well. I can appreciate that things aren't supposed to click all at once, and that what we need (versus what we want for now) may not be obvious at first, but why aren't people doubting that they may be making it happen only because of the Timer? And so on. In summary: This is the kind of idea that could have been 500 times better in capable hands (Gondry? Kaufman?). Which makes this lazy movie that less enjoyable.