Press Play

As someone who had a fiance' that died 18 years ago and is still dealing with the pain, I wanted to like this movie so bad. Anyone who has lost a loved one would give anything to have to see them again, even for a moment. I guess I should not have had such high hopes for it.

The premise is cool. Although any old head who had cassettes knows about the B side and how that works.

Aside from that. Idk who the lead girl was but she had the emotional range of a leaf. The guy and girl had no chemistry and it was hard to believe they even fell in love. I know it's a 1.5 hour movie and showing that kind of passionate love could be tricky in a short time frame but it can be done. Plus I was highly distracted by the main guys Adam's apple. That thing did better acting than the two leads.

I wanted more for this movie but it just didn't cut it.

Press Play has a fun set up. Yet it is all a tease.

Director Greg Björkman and co-writer James Bachelor could have played loose and fun with the temporal proceedings and made a Millennial Back To The Future. Laura's tampering with past events could have gotten all dark like The Butterfly Effect. Alas, none of that happens. Instead Laura cries about her lost love following every time jaunt and listens to terribly-forgettable pop-music.

The dialogue, and the situations themselves, become annoyingly repetitive, disconnecting all intrigue and struggle from her quest. Even Danny Glover, whose talents are wasted as the story's wise counselor, has his fortune cookie idioms promptly ignored.

What started out as a clever time travel movie quickly devolves into a mopey first love movie with a mopey soundtrack.

I first saw Clara Rugaard in I am Mother. I thought for her age she turned in a great performance, especially being the only other human in the film except for the fabulous Hilary Swank.

I've not seen her since so when her name was on the credits of this film I decided to give it a go.

The result is that Clara needs a much better director to thrive as an actor. The story is great I love it, but the direction and sound track is appalling. Also I felt that the dialogue for 2 people so much in love was rather weak, and the leading man was a weak actor although that also could be attributed to poor direction.

There was a chance here to make a great film, and allow Dugaard to shine as a great actor, neither happen un fortunately but I gave it a 5 for Dugaard trying hard anyway.

I should make it clear it is still a watchable film and I did enjoy it.

So at the beginning the story is (almost) pretty normal.

Laura,a talented painter,meet Harrison,who's working at a record store.

They fall in love, he teach her how to surf, she shows him her painting.

Pretty normal,right?

BUT.

Even if the movie is (apparently) set in present day, they star to make a mix tape.

Yep,that thing that we born before internet or mp3 used to do on music cassette.

They don't make a spotify playlist or something like that.

Nope,they record songs on a music cassette.

It's kind of weird but nice,i guess?

Well,that the "plot device" that the movie use.

Because when he tragically dies, she discover that when she listen to that mix tape she can travel trough time.

And she can try to save him.

I will not tell you where the movie goes from there,but you should know that it shows how time travel can mess up your ad others lives.

Overall a pretty good movie, not a masterpiece but a nice story with a lot of heart.

Laura (Clara Rugaard) falls for Harrison (Lewis Pullman) who works at a record store. Store owner Cooper (Danny Glover) has put up all the lost mixed tapes on the wall. Harrison makes his own mixed tape for Laura. After a tragedy, Laura discovers that the mixed tape can time travel and she tries to fix history.

The concept is good, but there isn't enough material for a full length movie. The movie is already short and the middle drags. Once the first time travel fails, all the other failures become repetitive. That's the slow part. This is a Twilight Zone episode for about forty minutes. The story needs another layer. The ending is poetic and that saves the movie.