SYNCHRONIC

 

I'm a big fan of a film that utilises time travel and tries to do it in a manner we've never really seen before, and Synchronic is most definitely a sci-fi film that I'd put in that bracket. Films that deal with time travel do have a danger of becoming too hard to follow or break their own established rules for the sake of convenience but it's a trap I feel Synchronic managed to avoid.

Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan star as two New Orleans paramedics, one a ladies man the other settled down with a family, whose lives are ripped apart when they encounter a number of horrific deaths linked to a designer drug with bizarre, otherworldly effects. 

Synchronic works rather well as a result of the pairing of Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan, the former having enough charisma for the pair of them to truly carry the film. It's their brother-like friendship that drives the narrative forward and makes you really care about what's at stake throughout the film. Mackie gets the most to do in the film and it's a wise choice to have him lead the film when explaining his exploits through time with a few comedic moments thrown in for good measure, his screen presence holding the film together.

It's the best performance I've seen from Dornan, who finds himself dealing with the more emotional side of proceedings due to his family being impacted directly by the designer drug in play. It's a performance that goes a little way in convincing me there's a good actor in there.

Justin Benson's writing is something that deserves praise because I'd find myself getting lost in it all if going through the writing process for this film. He establishes the rules to the time travel in Synchronic in a manner that reminded me of Chronicle through the use of found-footage, and its incorporation into the narrative is seamless.

The mystery surrounding the killings and the drug causing it all is quite haunting up to a point where it's sort of dropped for the time travel aspect. It shifts the tone of the film and I would rather they'd have stuck with the haunting atmosphere throughout. That being said, Synchronic doesn't drop in quality as a result, building to an emotional finale I never expected the film to possess.

Verdict: ★★★½