grace wonder

Any man (or woman) that has ever dreamt of time travel, has something, or someone, they desperately want to change. When young and bright students of jamaican descent tell their science teacher about their brilliant invention and the bright futures that lay ahead, all seems great in the world. But The very brief appearance by Michael J. Fox himself puts that very question on the stage - it’s not the mashine, it’s the purpose of it, that matters. Woven into the time travel jenre is also always the debate of determinism, of fate, versus one’s freedom of choice. At the determinist side of affairs there is police brutality towards the black minority, something that floods the streets as much on the screen as it sadly does in real life. In the very background, setting the stage, local news announce yet another senseless violence and death of an innocent black man, shot and killed by the police. Heroine’s father is no one to be seen, and as her older brother is wearing his “dog tags”, we can assume that he as well has died during his army service. Soon after the successful first field test of the time mashine, main heroine’s brother gets mistaken as a local robber and shot, with us left wondering whether he was in the wrong place during the wrong time or exactly where he was supposed to be. Unable to accept yet another loss and desperately trying to fix that our brave girl goes on series of time jumps learning like others before her that in time travel, all has consequences. The open ending might be seen as an easy way out - will she keep trying to find a way to keep everyone alive? Will she spend an eternity watching her best friend and her older brother die? I bring forward a different conclusion - perhaps the girl will try to change the only thing she might be able to, herself. Whether she will try to undo the situations of that day based largely of her own confrontational style of behaviour is unclear. Regrettably, it seems that the hint of the ending intended is there - shutting everyone out, unwilling to loose anyone else, she runs into it alone, wearing her fathers “dog tags” - willing to sacrifice herself instead and hoping that will be enough for everyone else to stay safe. Like father, like daughter. Who here agrees? Who thinks it’s too “donnie darko”? All in all, a movie to watch.