In this time bending crime caper, a pair of estranged siblings (Adam David Thompson and Riley Dandy) pull off a heist. In order to evade police attention, the pair find themselves a safe house with a big difference. The house they take shelter in gives them the ability to travel back in time to before they stole their goods. However, once they travel in time, they find out that the stay at this house will come at a very high price.
Things Will Be Different is an incredibly ambitious film, especially given its slim budget. The love for films like Tenet, Primer and The Terminator Franchise bursts from the screen as the script takes you on a journey full of time related twists and turns that wouldn’t be unfamiliar to fans of those films. Though much like the films that inspired it, it comes with the baggage of an overly complicated and under explained internal logic that can often leave the audience confused and perplexed.
What also drags this film down is its runtime, the film feels a lot like a short film that’s been extended to a feature length with not much meat to keep it going. The core concepts of the film are simple enough but the further the film goes on and the more it introduces then the more convoluted it becomes. Padding the film out is a lot of montages where the two main characters are waiting for time to pass, which at first is good character building but with repeated instances it becomes akin to watching paint dry as the characters aren’t doing much other than waiting for something to happen, a lot like the audience watching.
The script also doesn’t do a good enough job at investing you in the characters, there’s a lot cliché dialogue about family and mistakes being made and forgiven but there’s nothing that makes you especially care for the siblings, meaning when the third act starts to become much more consequential, there isn’t tonnes of emotional investment. Thompson and Dandy are clearly good actors and do well enough with the material they’re given but are ultimately let down by it.
The film, despite being overly long, is well directed and edited in parts. It looks crisp and the camera work does a great job at disguising the low budget with shots that would be unfamiliar to directors that frequently work on summer blockbusters. The production design and work is the standout of the film and what makes it much more notable than the weaker script would allow. One character that’s introduced later on has a sinister costume and the prop work is really impressive, all creating a rather tense atmosphere as the runtime continues.
Things Will Be Different is an ambitious time travelling thriller, what it lacks in budget it makes up for in a clear love for the time travelling sub-genre. It doesn’t always make sense, it drags and the characters don’t really draw you in but there are elements that keep you intrigued throughout.
Things Will Be Different is available now on Blu-ray and Digital Download
