The Incredible Shrinking Wknd is a 2019 drama about a girl going on a reunion weekend away at a cabin who ends up getting stuck in a time loop that decreases in time with each reset.
Fantasia Festival 2019: The Incredible Shrinking WKND (Spanish: El increíble finde menguante) opens to a group of six friends who are having a reunion at the cabin. As they learn about each other’s current state and about their future plans, Alba (Iria del Rio) and Pablo (Adam Quintero) seem to be the couple who seem fine on the surface but after dinner, Pablo suddenly suggests a break up. As she goes for a hike the next day, she goes into the old weapons factory area, a point of interest for the group and ends up triggering a time loop where time freezes and she wakes up again on the car ride to the cabin. As she wakes up each time, she at first enjoys what feels like an infinite time loop before realizing that it shrinks by the hour with every reset. What starts as some fun she can be in control of soon becomes a journey of self-discovery and at 30, a late growing up to adulthood as she embraces her feelings, her friends and her love.
Let’s face it, time loop stories are tricky. They can get repetitive and they often get lost. It’s easy to say that this is where we’re at again but writer and director Jon Mikel Caballero remembers to always make each trip back a little different, especially in the first few loops as Alba transitions in these different revelations from denial to finally wanting to make amends. It works through some of this by doing speed cuts of the crucial parts, putting more focus on the changes and the meaningful parts to see new discoveries giving Alba some proper development. While the middle section does feel like it dwells a little too long on things it does pick up some traction again in bringing us to a satisfying end.
Naturally, this is all heavily focused on Alba. While the other 4 friends and Alba’s boyfriend are very much present here and there in each loop in different ways, they all have their own revelations. Still, this is Alba’s story and Iria del Rio is quite good. Every reaction as she slowly breaks down from enthusiasm to uncertainty in trying to figure out how to escape the time loop becomes a journey that is rewarding because she becomes earns her worth, fighting for as she strives to improve. It’s a real change from the girl we meet at the start, seemingly unwilling to care about anyone, insensitive, irresponsible and with no direction.
At the end of the day, The Incredible Shrinking WKND is your basic time loop movie with a little depth. However, there is a unique style to this Spanish indie film and that merits some attention, that of the constantly narrowing screen, which is gradual at first before it’s nearly all you notice. The urgency of time as well as packing in the crucial details of Alba’s discoveries gives it a claustrophobic edge. There is always the question of who she will use up her remaining hours, right down to the last. It’s a touching insight on life. It’s visually affecting and not without impact.
The Incredible Shrinking WKND has an encore screening at Fantasia International Film Festival on July 22 at 4:35pm at the Hall Auditorium.