Predestination (2014) | Spoiler-free Movie Review

Predestination

Written and Directed by Michaela and Peter Spierig.  
Box Office: 5.4 million USD     IMdB: 7.5/10     Rotten Tomatoes: 83%     Metacritic: 69%

This was one of those movies that I just happened to watch by chance.  I simply googled “movies with twists” and boom - Predestination shows up.  I saw that the reviews were solid, and I always had a soft spot for Ethan Hawke. So, with my fiance Rachel and my friend Taja by my side, we sat down and watched this roller coaster of a movie.

Synopsis:
For his final assignment, a top temporal agent must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time. The chase turns into a unique, surprising and mind-bending exploration of love, fate, identity and time travel taboos.

Honestly, I tried to come up with a synopsis that explains this movie better than the IMdB one, but it’s simply impossible to explain.  I mean, even if I was throwing spoilers your way, I’d still struggle to explain this movie.  It’s one of those flickers where you find yourself googling other peoples’ take on the movie just to see if you interpreted the plot correctly.

Due to the confusing content of this movie, I’m finding it difficult to really judge the movie appropriately.  So, I’m going to break this down into four simple categories.

     -How well the movie is made
     -The performances
     -The story
     -The characters

How well the movie is made:
Truthfully, no real flaws here.  The film is shot beautifully and is able to take advantage of a unique time travel perspective that I haven’t seen before.  Because of the constant twists and turns throughout the movie, it’s very easy to lose your audience from the confusion if the story isn’t being told well.  With that said, Predestination does a wonderful job of creating a story that shocks you, while still being very much understandable.  

The performances:
Again, no complaints.  Ethan Hawke does a tremendous job.  Like I said before, I have a soft spot for him and seeing him shine in such a great film again was a pleasure.  But he’s not alone here.  There’s a tremendous performance from Sarah Snook, who is put in a position of playing very different personalities throughout the film.  She handles this extremely well.

The story:
Like I said, it’s a roller coaster but watching this story play out, little by little, putting together the puzzle pieces along the way was an absolute pleasure.  It’s written so creatively that there are so many times throughout that you think you have the film down.  I found myself constantly guessing the ending, fully confident that I was nailing it… but I never did.  It’s one of those movies where when it ends, you just want to keep discussing it.  Hence, my ongoing rant here.

The characters:
Without strong characters, this movie doesn’t work.  You start with two characters at a bar and quickly learn to love them.  As their stories unfold, it’s impossible to not be fully indulged.  You care about these characters, and that is key for such an ambitious story.

Overall, Predestination was an absolute blast.  If you’re like me and had no idea what it was, definitely go check it out.  Don’t watch any trailers, don’t ready any more reviews, do nothing.  Sit down, press play, and take it all in.


​★★★★★