Curvature is a 2018 sci-fi film about an engineer who travels back in time to stop herself from committing a murder.
Time travel is one of those very popular movie tropes that continues to be cleanly divided on how filmmakers take to using it. Typically, big budget studios use lavish visuals to tell these stories, putting their characters through impressive effects that see our heroes in big action spectacles of gadgets, lights, flashes and whatnots while independent filmmakers, less able to splash screens with pizzazz, rely on moody narratives to get the job done. With Diego Hallivis‘ latest Curvature, it’s just that, a conversationally-driven mind bender that is full of ambitious ideas that stumbles with execution, leaving this a tantalizing story that fails to click.
Young Helen (Lyndsy Fonseca) is dealing with a great loss. Her husband Wells (Noah Bean) recently committed suicide and it has devastated her, the constant flow of memories make every day a challenge. After a time, she returns to work as an engineer, meeting with her mentor Florence (Linda Hamilton), who encourages her to take her time but try to move on. Meanwhile, she meets with Tomas (Glenn Morshower), Wells’ partner, who is seeking her permission to continue their work on a secret government project, a time machine. Oddly, she then wakes one day after realizing a week has passed, having no memory of it, which only gets stranger when she gets a phone call from herself, warning her that she’s in great danger.
Curvature is not an action film, even if the premise builds it like it were. This is much more a twister that is meant to keep you guessing and indeed Brian DeLeeuw‘s script and much of Hallivis’ direction work hard to keep the suspense ramped up, along with a pumped up electronic score by Adam Taylor. However, the movie is character driven and skips about as Helen goes on the run, discovering that there are two of her in this time, each with very different ideas on how to fix their problem, leaving this a more talky film than one punched up with energy. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. I’ve said before that a smart, science-based trippy movie like this, one that dumps me right in the science of it, is appealing, yet Curvature avoids this mostly and instead tries to be a thriller.
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While the limited effects are solid, the story itself is lean with thin characters that rarely feel authentic, the story leading us along with smart threads that don’t often connect with the impact intended. It’s pretty easy to see where it’s going and while the cast, especially Fonseca, work hard to convince, the whole thing is more of a perfuctory time travel movie than anything with significant challenge. A few clever moments help to save it, but the blink and you’ll miss it cameo of Hamilton is just one of a few larger disappointments.
To offer some positives, I liked a lot of what Hallivis does with creating atmosphere and there are several very effective visual moments that strike well. It has a dreamy quality to it that works in favor with many elements of Helen’s troubling journey. However, this remains a mostly unfulfilling experience that never truly blends well the emotional ups and downs with its science.