We are truly clutching at straws with Y, as we are focusing on James being visited by someone from yesterday, showing he needs to learn about yourself.
Writer: Jonas Chernick, Jeremy LaLonde (Screenplay)
Starring: Jonas Chernick, Daniel Stern, Cleopatra Coleman, Frances Conroy, Tara Spencer-Nairn
Plot: A scientist meets a version of himself from the future who has traveled back in time to stop himself from inventing time travel.
Tagline – It’s man versus himself. Literally.
Runtime: 1 Hour 34 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: Interesting Idea
Story: James vs. His Future Self starts as scientist James (Chernick) is on the verge of his great breakthrough in time travel, only for him to get a visitor, Jimmy (Stern) an older version of himself, warning him to stop wasting his time on time travel.
James needs to listen to the warnings about his life, so he doesn’t follow the same mistakes his future self-made, including following his heart with best friend Courtney (Coleman) or just someone who wastes his time with time travel, being trapped in a cycle of isolation.
Thoughts on James vs. His Future Self
Characters – James is a young scientist who has been working on the possibilities of time travel for his whole life, he is giving up much of his personal life in this pursuit, which sees his relationship with his sister strained, the woman he loves is only a friend, only he gets visited by an older man, a man that claims to be him from the future. He needs to learn to stop and take a break in life to see what is in front of him before making the same mistakes again. Jimmy is the older version of James, he has been through time countless times, as part of the experiments, he doesn’t want to see James make the same mistakes again, he wants to fix everything in his life, teaching his younger self to enjoy life. Courtney is the co-worker, best friend and love of James life, she has a future beyond brilliance in her life and if James doesn’t learn about her importance to him, she will do it without him.
Performances – Jonas Chernick and Daniel Stern work well together in the film, we see how one has seen the mistakes and will look to learn from them, one shows the determination of a future, while the other shows the beaten down life of regret. Cleopatra Coleman works very well in the role, showing the person that is caught in the middle of a future with or without the person they love.
Story – The story here follows a young scientist that is about to get a career making moment, only to get visited by his future self, to warn him about the decisions he will end up making in life, one that will have consequences he can’t imagine. This is a story about learning to make the most of the time you have in life and now missing the best moments of your life, the ones you can only make happen, by pausing in life more often. It warns about career being put before love and shows how extreme lengths an older version of yourself will always have regrets the younger ones make.
Comedy/Sci-Fi – The comedy in the film comes from seeing what Jimmy does to try and stop James making the mistakes, while the sci-fi side of the film, does focus on time travel and what it could achieve for you in life.
Settings – The film uses the settings to show the working environment, home environment, a location which is filled with tragedy and the secret location where Jimmy must spend his days, the locations do show how James hasn’t been able to make more of his own life, the way he would want to.
Scene of the Movie – The café meeting.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – Certain jokes don’t fit the tone of the film.
Final Thoughts – This is an interesting idea for a film, it shows us how living with regret can haunt people, only this time we get to see the true meaning of this regret with time travel.
Overall: Interesting Idea.
