Being building managers of an apartment complex, youngsters Callie
(Danielle Panabaker), her somewhat indifferent boyfriend Finn (Matt
O'Leary) and energetic Jasper (George Finn) see it their duty to check in
on one of their neighbours to find a large, weird camera in his apartment
pointing directly at the window of their apartment, and on the wall they
see countless of Polaroids of what has happened in their apartment the
past few weeks, and while they are there, the camera shoots another
Polaroid ... of what's going to happen in the apartment tomorrow. So
apparently the camera can see into the future, which is great for Jasper
because he likes to bet on dog races, but isn't very good at it - but if
he knew the results in advance ... Finn is a painter without inspiration,
but on tomorrow's photo he sees a finished painting of his, so he decides
to just copy this - as it would then still be his, right? Callie it seems
is just along for the ride. Later they also find their neighbour - dead
and burnt to a crisp while the clothes he's wearing are uncinged. This
makes them panic as they figure they mustn't mess with time, but since
reporting their dead neighbour to the police would mean they might lose
the time traveling camera, they hide his body ... and for the next few
weeks, everything's great as can be, Jasper wins big at the races, Finn
paints the paintings of tomorrow's photos by the numbers, and even Callie
gets something out of this, making Finn more interested in her again ...
and then Jasper's bookie Ivan (Jason Spisak) and his muscle Marcus (David
Figlioli) pay them a visit, having grown a little suspicious about the guy
who's always winning big at the races ... and when they learn about the
time-traveling camera, they want to use it for their own ends - but with
the help of Polaroids from the future, our heroes manage to overcome Ivan
and Marcus, as well as a few other obstacles ... but somehow things get
out of hands when Finn and Jasper have a fall-out, and when Callie's
motives are ultimately revealed - and chaos ensues ... Time
Lapse is a totally likeable little movie: Sure, the premise is
far-fetched as can be, and not all the implications of communicating with
oneself via photos from the future are proberly explored or even fully
thought through - but that said, the movie's also very well-told, with
plenty of interesting plottwists, suspense coming from unexpected places,
believable action, and it's well acted and directed in a laid back way
that you'll almost certainly enjoy it despite some shortcomings regarding
logic and the like.
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