directed by:
Jade Winters written by: Jade Winters genre: Drama |
You know what they say: if the place still has good bones, then it's totally worth renovating. I'll be honest with you -I have no idea if anyone says that. I haven't the slightest clue what makes one house worth tearing down and another worth fixing up. These hands of mine were not born for that kind of thing. I do know this, though – if the place you're renovating is full of ghosts, I think I'm genuinely on the side of tearing it all down.
In this film, we've got Beth (Eleanor Barr-Sim) taking on the DIY renovations to flip a house and make a slight profit. Sounds common enough, right? Not too far in, she has clearly gotten the sense that she's over her head in terms of what she can do & how much TLC this place really needs, so she enlists Melissa (Ella McCready) to give her a hand. Melissa is on a "30-day water fast" when we meet her. WE'VE FOUND THE KILLER! Alright…maybe hold on that assessment for a minute or two – I don't know that there IS a killer in "Time Was," but I DO know that I'd be highly suspect of anybody that has resigned themselves to only water for a freakin' month. Do people really do that? I've had about ten glasses of water in my forty-five years on Earth, and I'm positive that my insides are total molasses. Melissa seems like she's got a decent plan to get Beth's place in line. At the very least, she's got a good idea about which colours go where. Beth seems pretty willing to hand over the reins to Melissa's experience, and if I didn't know better, I might even say that the lady has a bit of a crush on her newfound helper. Beth also seems like she's felt some kind of a strange presence in the house and kind of drifts between being completely concerned about it and not concerned at all. Which is interesting, ain't it? I'm telling you right now that if I had worries about my house being haunted or whatever, I don't think I would just get up the next day and make myself a sandwich, you feel me? I think I'd stay concerned for quite some time thereafter…or I'd get those 'for sale' signs up on the lawn immediately. Not good ol' Beth, though, nope. She's content to pull the blankets tighter around her as if they were sprayed with the finest, award-winning ghost repellant. What she should have done is take her friend Amelia's (Bryony Miller) advice and gotten the heck outta there long ago when it started feeling spooky. But... I guess money make people do odd things. "I wouldn't wanna live with a ghost," says Cara (Kathryn O'Reilly), who plays a smaller role in the movie - but an important character to meet in helping Beth potentially find the answers she's looking for – and I happen to agree with her! In fact, it's quite clear to me that the wisest characters you'll find in "Time Was" have the least amount of screen time because they know better than to hang out in this haunted real estate! As the job continues to get done, Beth and Melissa also begin to get closer, but it's hard to say whether or not that's going to be a good thing in the long run. Beth might be full-on crazy if you ask me. Don't get me wrong, I dig the lady, but you'll get about halfway into "Time Was" and realize that you at least have to consider the fact that she's not quite all there. Likewise, you're bound to start wondering about Melissa as well - and forming theories about her character, too. Do we have any real evidence that could help us rule Melissa out from being a mere figment of Beth's imagination? I ended up with my doubts about that, which is part of what really made watching "Time Was" a fun time. We're really riding along with Beth as we watch, trying to figure out what is and what isn't real in the house with her. Personally, I like the casting maybe a bit more than the characters themselves. Do you know what I mean? The light in Eleanor Barr-Sim's eyes is spectacularly rare, and her constant mix of inquisitive looks was a fantastic pairing to go with someone who's way out of their element, trying to find their way. Essentially, she's got a fairly constant look of surprise, sometimes for good reasons, like realizing she was able to fix something she needed to do around the house, and then sometimes for other reasons, like the potentially ghost-related stuff goin' on. There are weird noises, there are static bursts on her computer screens – it's weird in Beth's house, but that light of curiosity/fascination you see in her eyes remains an asset in every scene that she's in. I maintain that she should probably be a little more concerned than her character seems to be about the whole ghost thing…but maybe that's just me. Do you know who's even less concerned? Melissa. This lady is made of concrete feelings and doesn't seem to be moved in the slightest by the possibility of ghosts. She's very realistic about it and clearly has that rational approach to life that needs to see a wee shred of evidence before jumping to conclusions. In any event, I thought she did a solid job of presenting a colder, more factual, objective demeanour, where Melissa is basically playing what appears to be the same person while Beth is unravelling. Amelia and Cara don't really have too many scenes in "Time Was" to make too much of a difference if I'm being honest with ya, but they use what time they have to the film's advantage and help the story move along.
Writer/Director Jade Winters feels like she's really struck a solid balance with "Time Was." It's part Drama, part Romance, part Sci-Fi/Horror – and what makes watching this film unique is that you don't really know which of those three main elements it's going to lean into more as it plays on. Jade has good instincts for a project like this. Quality writing by and large, and she didn't spend a lot of time on mundane details that don't really move the story forward. I think, as viewers, we all get a sense of where "Time Was" kind of has to go because there are certain parts of this story that you simply wouldn't include if it wasn't gonna go in that particular direction, but that being said, I enjoy a well-told tale, and that's really what we've got here. With four main cast members, and one central location, Jade has done a solid job of getting a lot out of a little, and I think that as a result of smart casting & the advantage of taking on both the writing & directing, Winters got what she wanted onscreen in this film. That being said, I also felt like, with about twenty minutes or so to go in "Time Was," the energy was so entirely consistent across the board that there would be next to no way that the finale of this movie could really have the dynamics it might need to be as memorable as it probably should have been. It was almost like the consistency was working against it as it came to a conclusion, and no matter which of the directions it could go in, be it Drama, Romance, or a Ghost Story, it seemed like it was a little bit limited in the scope of how much suspense it could generate because it really IS so balanced at all times. So, on the one hand, it's a story that's really well told, and it's as clean in the conclusion as Jade's camera work. On the other hand, it also kind of leaves you wanting a bit for a little more of a pulse-raising along the way, given that it does incorporate a supernatural element into its tale. By the end, I'm confident that if you were paying close attention, you likely figured out the mystery by the end. That's not always a bad thing, and I'd argue it's not really in this instance either. "Time Was" might not be the most thrilling or dynamic movie you're going to see this year, but I maintain that it is a well-done film that's cohesive and satisfying to watch. I'm going with three stars out of five – I felt like "Time Was" was a good example of a story that had no huge bells & whistles but everything it needed to be told. |
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