The Gateway is a 2018 sci-fi thriller about a particle physicist grieving over the loss of her husband who travels to a parallel world to find him again, with dire consequences for her family.
I’m a sucker for a good paradox in movies, stories that play with time in unconventional ways, which typically mean being more realistic, if that’s possible, than your average blockbuster. Independent movies have generally led the way in this format, having the freedom to take us places mainstream studios simply won’t take the chance on. Think of Primer and last year’s brilliant but underseen Anti Matter. With John V. Soto‘s clever and trippy The Gateway (originally Alpha Gateway), there’s a lot to keep fans of such on their toes, even if the film can’t always find its footing.
Dr. Jane Chandler (Jacqueline McKenzie) is a particle physicist working in a small though highly advanced laboratory with assistant Regg (Ben Mortley), the two very near a scientific breakthrough that could change everything: teleportation. They’ve recently got an apple to disappear but aren’t sure where it went, though their research is interrupted when Jane’s husband Matt (Myles Pollard) is killed in an accident. For weeks, she and her children are devastated, but in her isolation and depression, her mind begins to wander and hits on a theory that suggests maybe that apple isn’t lost but actually sent to a different parallel dimension. When it suddenly does come back – with a bite out of it – she’s desperate to prove the theory right, taking the leap and sending herself through the machine into a universe where Matt is still alive. However, it doesn’t mean it’s the same Matt.
Right away, if you’re even slightly interested in sciency time shifting stuff, then The Gateway has hooks that set fast. Jane discovers that a parallel universe does exist, with everything nearly the same as her universe, and this is where Soto, who co-wrote the screenplay with Michael White, takes great advantage of the potential. Important difference separate these worlds, and Jane is blinded to what it means. Soto builds a believable and well-constructed world that at least for what it intends, convinces. Yes, we must let lapse a few bits of fiction of course to allow the story to progress, but with the limited budget and small scale he’s working on, it’s impressive what he does.
READ MORE: Review of the Sci-fi thriller Defective
You can’t help but link this to others, including David Cronenberg‘s remake of The Fly, though this is not a horror film as such. What we get instead are ethical questions as Jane flits about in two universes, not really seeing the consequences of what her presence – and Matt’s return – truly have until it’s too late. The greater weakness to The Gateway though is its chemistry, combining the science fiction with emotions. Soto tasks his audience with swallowing a great deal with the multi-universe premise, one that he sells well, but it stumbles when it’s forced to give way to the relationships. McKenzie is terrific, she a longtime veteran of film and television, easily making Jane a person we get behind and Pollard essentially plays two people here and for the most part convinces, however the film feels flat in many key moments that strain for impact.
Still, The Gateway is loaded enough with clever twists and interesting ideas that for fans who seek out films off the beaten path, it might have promise. It doesn’t hold your hand and throws you right into geeky mumbo-jumbo right from the start (something I’ve always been drawn to in movies like this). It’s definitely a flawed experience, though I appreciate the filmmaker’s ambitions.