Review

Review Date: 30-November-03
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Timeline (2003)

It would suck to live in the Middle Ages. Inescapable stench, rampant disease, death in childbirth, (death most other times), ignorance, starvation, social injustice, religious intolerance, lack of DVD players, and a host of other torments served to make the average life a big old downer. Nevertheless, show me a time machine and I would go there in a heartbeat, because visiting any other era (in the past, anyway) sounds totally cool. And to go there in the company of Scottish knockout Gerard Butler sporting long locks and a sexy leathern tunic --- well, that's worth braving any number of inconveniences for. So I mostly enjoyed Richard Donner's adaptation of Michael Crichton's book "Timeline," which is fluffy and forgettable but manages to capitalize on the intrinsic appeal of "What If?".

"Timeline" opens in modern-day France, where a team of archaeologists under the direction of Professor Johnston (Billy Connolly) works to unearth the ruins of a 14th-century castle and monastery. The dig promises to supplement the historical record concerning a famous battle between the French and the English, which jazzes scholars André Marek (the über-gorgeous Butler) and Kate (Frances O'Connor) but fails to incite the interest of American pretty-boy Chris Johnston (Paul Walker), who is there only to hang with his father and woo Kate. However, things suddenly get very interesting for everybody after the professor leaves for a few days and disappears ... only to send them a 600-year-old SOS retrieved from the rubble of the monastery. What has happened to him?

The trail leads to ITC Corporation, the high-tech company funding the dig whose research into three-dimensional "faxing" has opened up a worm hole enabling time travel. In a matter of minutes, Chris and his friends are coaxed out of their T-shirts (which in Butler's case is a very good thing) and into the attire of Ye Olde France by ITC's smarmy honcho (David Thewlis, unrecognizable under nerd attire and several extra pounds). They have exactly six hours to get in, find the professor, and get out. Needless to say, it ain't no pleasure trip.

Fittingly, the gang arrives in the thick of things on the very day of the celebrated battle, but the ensuing chaos doesn't completely gel into a good story. Repeated returns to the present (where a smaller skirmish threatens to trap the heroes in the past) detract more than they excite, and the romance between Chris and Kate never gets off the ground. (Walker can't help but come across as a complete doofus, but at least it makes sense: Chris is the dumb American with no use for history, after all.) Subplots make up most of the movie, and too bad; the filmmakers might have produced a real winner if they had developed Marek's acquaintance with the legendary Lady Claire (Anna Friel), or the potentially dangerous showdown between the travelers' guide (Neil McDonough) and a former ITC employee who has reinvented himself as a medieval Englishman.

But even without a riveting central plot, "Timeline" does provide the escapist entertainment it apparently intends. Much like "Ladyhawke," Donner's other (better) foray into the middle ages, the settings and props here have a squalid, clumsy look that helps foster the sense of a more primitive time and place, as do the memorable moments of the big battle scene at the end (e.g., when two armies of flaming arrows meet against the midnight sky). Indeed, the Hollywood-style fascination with history or historical fantasy provides the film's chief pleasure (excepting, of course, the way Marek's eyes crinkle when he looks at Claire). I'm betting that if I actually went back to the 14th-century, I would find more to worry about than sidestepping huge battles, locating hidden tunnels, pursuing potentially doomed romances, and activating Celtic pendants with malfunctioning LCD displays. But lacking the means to fax myself to yesteryear, I found in "Timeline" an agreeably diverting round-trip out of the everyday modern world.

Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.