The Present

A brilliant but mute boy (Easton Rocket Sweda) discovers that he can manipulate time using a family heirloom. He soon teams up with his siblings in returning to the time of their parents' separation, with hopes of changing the outcome.

The idea isn't new, but it's still an enticing idea: being able to control time to affect an outcome. The story has a sweet and wholesome intent, to get the warring parents back together so the family remains whole. Greg Kinnear is as good as you would expect as the father, the rest of the performances aren't bad, but they're pretty meh.

The film itself is slightly annoying in that going back in time is one thing, doing it repeatedly so many times is quite tedious and boring. We got the idea early on so the manic repetitive i think was filling in for a story that could so easily have been a short film. Also silly camera tricks that have proven to universally not be liked at all, such as spinning around a group of people in circles, made me almost motion sick and I had to fast forward through some parts. There were some quite childish scenes too so I wonder if the makers meant this film to be aimed at younger children whose parents were thinking of divorce?

It wasn't awful, but it wasn't great, I gave it a 5.