Predestination (2013)

Director: Michael and Peter Spierig

Screenplay: Michael and Peter Spierig (based on the book by Robert A. Heinlein)

Cast: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor

Music: Peter Spierig

Time: 97 minutes

Bottom-line: Tries to do way too much and ends up failing

This was a film that my friends were badgering me to watch for a long time, and now that I have seen it, I have no idea why they all went gaga over it. The Australian science-fiction film stars Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook and Noah Taylor in the lead roles, and employs the concept of time travel, in particular, the predestination paradox.

"... the snake that eats its own tail, forever and ever..."
At an unknown point in time, a time-travelling agent tries to disarm a bomb that explodes and burns his face. As he recovers, we get to know that he had attempted to prevent the attack of the “Fizzle Bomber” on New York in 1975. After he heals, the agent (Hawke) moves to 1970, New York, where he works as a bartender. He meets a customer, John (Snook), who narrates his tale to the bartender. We see that he was born a female, Jane (also Snook), and she gets a chance to go to space, but is later disqualified because of a medical condition that is never revealed to her. Jane later falls in love with a man, gets pregnant, and then the man leaves her. Following some medical complications, a surgery forces Jane to live as a man. The agent offers to take John back in time to find out who left Jane, but as they soon discover, time travel has been irreparably tampered with, leading to severe repercussions.

 

Hawke as the Agent

I am reminded of the movie Incendies by Denis Villeneuve, where the twist ending awed many, but made me cringe. The same goes for Predestination. Up to a point, I felt that the concept of time travel has been used well, exploiting its loopholes and paradoxes. After a while, it is too convoluted a plot to follow. It is as though the intention of the film is just to explore an extreme case of the predestination paradox; every incident is scripted that way, and there the film loses its grip on the viewer.

 

Snook as Jane

This film launched the career of Sarah Snook, who plays both Jane and John. With sufficient help from the make-up crew and voice artists, her acting is sublime as both the characters: the sensitive, nerdy Jane, and the depressed, vengeful John. Ethan Hawke has that air of charm around him just because he is Ethan Hawke (after all, he starred in the “Before” trilogy didn’t he?) but he doesn’t have that demanding a role in this film. The other main character in the film is Robertson, played by Noah Taylor; what his true job is and how it messes with everyone’s lives will be revealed when you watch the film.

 

Snook as John

Predestination definitely requires a couple of viewings, and you might want to read several “plot explained” articles to truly understand what’s going on and place all the events in a sequential order. Once you do that, you can either go “wow!”, or in my case, wonder why the hell any of those even happened.

My Rating: 2.5/5

Rotten Tomatoes rating: 83%