Timer

By Ashley Hillard

Writer/director Jac Schaeffer poses an interesting question to the audience of ”Timer” : if you could know when you would meet the love of your life, would you want to know? Initially put off by the film’s ending, the more I thought about it, the more it hit home with the idea that the ability to look into the future affects your present. Sometimes, life really is about the journey and not the destination.

Emma Caulfield (”Buffy, The Vampire Slayer”) plays nearly-30 Oona who has a Timer implanted into her wrist to tell her when she will meet her true love. Michelle Borth plays her step sister Steph, who is less enthusiastic about the Timer and dating in general. The women are brought together when their parents get Timers and marry. Oona feels pressure from her family and society to find a man and settle down. John Patrick Amedori (”Gossip Girl”) is sweet and loveable as Mikey, the clerk at Oona’s local supermarked that asks her out. Oona is resistant at first, but when she finds out Mikey’s Timer is set to go off in four months, at which point he’ll meet his true love, she decides to give him a shot since it’s not forever anyway. Steph falls for the grandson of a patient at a nursing home she works at, who doesn’t have a Timer. As the women fall for their new guys, they soon realize how complicated knowing the future makes their current situations.

Dating is a pain in the ass. It’s irritating that there is still somewhat of a stigma of women over 30 being single, like a woman’s best years are her prime reproductive years and after that it’s over. Dating can be a painful process and Timer gives a peek into what life would be like knowing who “the one” is and skipping all the hearbreak to find them. The film also shows, though, that relationships that fail help shape us and let us know what we are looking for, so even though it can be frustrating and sad, it can also offer insight into who a person is. For anyone out there navigating the polluted dating ocean, this film offers some comfort that you will get through and be better for it as a result.