By William Wolf

PRIMER  Send This Review to a Friend

Writer-director Shane Carruth has dreamed up a murky sci-fi story that is so obtuse that some people may exit trying to figure out what the hell was going on, while others may be smitten by the weirdness of it all. Of such stuff cult films are made. “Primer” was introduced at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival.

From my perspective the goings-on were so boring that it seemed the film would never end. Aaron, played by Carruth, and Abe, portrayed by David Sullivan, work as engineers but scheme in a garage to create a special invention. Using readily available ingredients, they build a strange time machine. The potential? What if you can flip back in time just long enough to know what to buy on the stock market and make a killing? What happens if you time travel to the past and are also left where you started?

One problem is that the dialogue is so clipped and obscure that it seems like an endless assault of meaningless patter. The conspiratorial tone suggests working on something so secret and special that the fate of mankind may be in the hands of these shady inventors. Until one gets a handle on what they are up to, one might suspect them of being potential terrorists.

Perhaps this is your cup of fantasy. But be prepared. A THINKFilm release.

  

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