Time travel is initially enticing yet ultimately a very bad idea. If the movies have taught us anything, it's that messing with time means it gets to mess with you back. The instant allure comes with the emotion of being able to connect and reconnect with different generations, course-correcting missed opportunities during the first go-around. Imagine accidentally traveling back in time 32 years for a chance encounter with your dad, and asking him to help you save the world.
That's the predicament sitting in front of Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds), a time-traveling pilot who inadvertently zips from 2050 to 2022, running into his 13-year-old self (Walter Scobell). Tasked with stopping the broken-bad Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener) from using her former partner (and Adam's dad, played by Mark Ruffalo) Louis Reed's technology for the wrong reason, they have to team up with their pops or else the bad folks win.
The special sauce in director Shawn Levy's latest, "The Adam Project," is the heart and humor concoction applied to a concept that Hollywood has used often. The funny parts in this film are thankfully of the tongue-in-cheek variety. Levy winks at the camera here, knowing full well that the object of this game is fun. If you think about it long enough, time travel doesn't make sense and falls apart. The rule-bending contraptions one could fall into. Thanks to the glorious thing we call the movies, it gets constant life.
One wouldn't accuse "The Adam Project" of pure originality, even if it strives hard for it. The script has four sets of hands attached, and it can attempt to pack too much into the otherwise brisk 106 minute run time. Plot contrivances abound, and you will be able to predict a few things in the first hour. But there's nimble, well-written touches and sections that support the general task of providing entertainment. A running joke about losing your smarts for a nice body creates a vivid chemistry between Reynolds and Scobell.
The younger actor more than holds his own with Reynolds, who fits older Adam to a tee. Only a handful of performers could inject so much wit into a single line, or make a familiar-sounding line seem fresh again. Reynolds can make you laugh one moment and modestly emotional a minute later, switching between those two destinations often here. Some films call for him to be funny or action-assured, and only a few require him to add drama to the mix. Here, he gets to use all three tools and it keeps Levy's movie moving.
Jennifer Garner has mastered the role of smart movie mom, but she adds something sweet to the role of Adam's mother, aka the glue in the science nerd family. Catherine Keener's extra dry villain (she could be sipping a martini during some of her kills) is the only letdown of the film, including a terribly de-aged younger version of her character. She doesn't fit with the movie's tone at all. Chewing scenery would have played better. Even worse, she doesn't appear to be having any fun.
Zoe Saldana certainly is having some fun as older Adam's wife, who spends half the film missing in action yet arrives with a kick or two. Supporting or lead, Saldana always brightens up a movie.
Levy and Reynolds are becoming quite the team. They both belong to the same sci-fi movie geek class. The two made "Free Guy" last year and this is a solid follow-up with its own zany sci-fi energy. There's tribute songs to "Star Wars" and "E.T." located in this fast-moving treat, and more than a handful of cinematic odes elsewhere. The goal here is to make you feel good about the magic that movies can grab a hold of, even if only temporarily--and how simple father-son pathos can cue the waterworks when performed well.
In addition to the impressive co-leads, Ruffalo adds a lot of soulful wisdom to Louis Reed, the brilliant mind whose only doubt lied in the belief he wasn't a good enough father. There's a genuine earnestness to the interactions between the Adams and Louis, and that's the cast finding a rhythm and understanding the movie they're in and its goal.
The goal being make you smile and forget about all the ugliness in the world for a couple hours, instead focusing your attention on what really matters: family, and all the crazy stuff we'll do for more time with our loved ones.
Goal well achieved, Mr. Levy. Time travel, deep down, may always be a bad idea, but it's still pretty fun to explore in the movies.
