Cast: Paul Walker, Frances O'Connor, Gerard Butler, Billy Connolly, Ethan Embry, Anna Friel, Rossif Sutherland, David Thewlis, Matt Craven, Neal McDonough
Director: Richard Donner
Producers: Richard Donner, Lauren Shuler Donner, Jim Van Wyck
Screenplay: Jeff Maguire and George Nolfi, based on the novel by Michael Crichton
Cinematography: Caleb Deschanel
Music: Brian Tyler
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
If Timeline is a disappointment, it's because I still have some respect for director Richard Donner, despite his recent lack of success. Because of Lethal Weapon and Superman, I was willing to overlook Assassins. Before Timeline, Donner hadn't made a film in five years. As a comeback, this is a huge letdown. Then again, what could one reasonably expect from a movie that boasts an acting-challenged stud in the lead role. I know… Keanu Reeves did it in The Matrix, but, sad to say, Paul Walker is no Keanu Reeves and Timeline is definitely no The Matrix.
I'm not going to attack Timeline for its idiotic storyline, amateurish acting, historical inaccuracies, or connect-the-dots character development. To a certain extent, those things are expected from science fiction action/adventures. What is unforgivable, however, is that this movie is boring and repetitive. Aside from a low-rent, Braveheart-inspired battle at the end, Timeline consists of characters running from one place to another for the better part of 90 minutes. Once in a while, there's a short skirmish and someone dies (or is thought to die), but it's all dull and uninspired. This movie is in desperate need of a pulse.
Timeline opens in contemporary times and introduces us to a think-tank led by Robert Doniger (David Thewlis). ITC (International Technology Corporation), as it's called, has discovered a means by which individuals can be "faxed" back in time to a specific era - 1357 in Castlegard, France, just before a (fictionalized) battle of the Hundred Year War. Our Heroes are a group of archeologists: Chris Johnston (Paul Walker), Kate Erickson (Frances O'Connor), Andre Marek (Gerard Butler), and Francois Nolastnamegiven (Rossif Sutherland). Accompanied by a few military types ("Red shirts" in Star Trek terms) led by the weasely John Gordon (Neal McDonough), they use the time fax machine to go to Castlegard to save Chris' father, Professor Edward Johnston (Billy Connolly), who got trapped in the past while doing some on-site archeological work. Once in the past, the group becomes enmeshed in local politics and finds themselves in a desperate race against time to get back to the future before the wormhole closes. And Marek ends up violating history in a big way when he saves the life of pretty Lady Claire (Anna Friel), who is supposed to die.
Words fail to express how bad Paul Walker is in this role. I kept thinking: A Surfer Dude in King Arthur's Court. The guy might be able to pass for a cocky race car driver in The Fast and the Furious (I will pretend the ignominious sequel did not exist), but, put him in period garb and he's more out of place than Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale. Most of the other actors are okay, with the notable exception of Billy Connolly, who is so absurdly over-the-top that I had trouble containing my laughter.
The movie bored me to tears with its plot element retreads and endless running around. It's fortunate that the main characters happen to carry pendants that have convenient digital readouts of how much time is left before the wormhole closes, or where would the suspense come from? It's also best not to give much thought to the film's approach to time travel and the associated paradoxes. Timeline doesn't do a credible job of making this stuff believable. Maybe it was better thought out in the Michael Crichton novel that was the film's inspiration (Crichton is usually excellent when it comes to pseudo-science), but the finer points didn't make it to the screen.
There are times when the movie comes across as so laughably absurd that it's almost entertaining. Once or twice, I was half-expecting the Monty Python troupe to appear, searching for the Holy Grail. The lengthy battle scene at the end provides a little entertainment value, but we don't care enough about the paper-thin characters for this to have more than a cursory curiosity value. However, Timeline does illustrate an important aspect of the concept of time dilation that Einstein never contemplated: how the experience of sitting through a two-hour motion picture can seem like it takes all day.
© 2003 James Berardinelli