Strong acting helps stabilize this dopey sci-fi/family drama.
Even the most casual consumer of science fiction can tell you that tinkering with the past, however commendable the reason, is a fool’s game. This may be news to the three adults at the center of Jared Moshé’s film “Aporia,” a deeply silly time-travel weepie buoyed solely by the soapy warmth of its performances.
Ever since Sophie (Judy Greer) lost her husband, Mal (Edi Gathegi), to a drunken driver eight months earlier, she and her preteen daughter (Faithe Herman) have been struggling. Enter Mal’s best friend, Jabir (Payman Maadi), a physicist and refugee from a dictatorship that killed his entire family. Obsessed with past wrongs, Jabir has been quietly building a time machine, a contraption that looks like a janky iron lung. The machine doesn’t actually go anywhere, but (and don’t quote me on this) can send particles back in time to murder your chosen victim. Someone like, say, the driver who killed Mal.
But softhearted Sophie, unable to enjoy a successful assassination, can’t resist befriending the erstwhile driver’s widow and daughter, only to unearth a second villain. Every erasure, of course, demands several minutes of soul-searching and causes unexpected, increasingly troubling repercussions; maybe just one more murder will set everything right?
Filled with idiotic behavior and logical ellipses (and a beyond-infuriating ending), “Aporia,” which means an expression of doubt or uncertainty, more than justifies its title. The film’s most beguiling idea, though, is its insistence on the significance of shared memories: When time resets, only Sophie and Jabir remember the original timeline, leaving them excluded from an alternate past — even their own.
Aporia
Rated R for forgivable language and unforgivable behavior. Running time: 1 hour 44 minutes. In theaters.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
