The premise of 57 Seconds is ripe for exploration of the various ethical and moral issues that arise alongside the concept of time travel. Here, the travel within question is only the eponymous amount into the past, giving our hero a minimal advantage in any given situation. What happens, though, if one were, by complete accident, to bring another person along for that 57-second ride? It could rewrite relationships, untangle interpersonal drama, and offer the tiniest space in which to do good (or bad, if one was so inclined) in the world. The screenplay for co-writer/director Rusty Cundieff’s film is far more interested in what such a device could do within the confines of a routine action-thriller.
It isn’t that there is anything wrong about the story concocted by Cundieff and co-screenwriter Macon Blair. It simply seems as if that story went through a few too many rewrites on its way to the screen. Everything about the characters is basic, from their motivations to what informs those motivations and their personalities, to boot. The characterization of Franklin Fox (Josh Hutcherson), for instance, is clear right up front: He’s an Everyman, and if there was any doubt as to that fact, well, the man narrates his own story all the way through, in an especially egregious storytelling device that adds nothing of consequence. In mourning over a sister he lost to an opioid epidemic still happening in the near future, Franklin is now a journalist who exposes the pharmaceutical industry.
His latest target is a massive and mysterious company run by Anton Burrell (Morgan Freeman, cashing a quick paycheck), who has developed a cure for all human illnesses. Not only that, he claims to have developed a way to use this cure as a preventive measure for most accidents, too. Those are major claims, although once we finally are introduced to the sci-fi ring that turns time backward 57 seconds, even more questions arise. How can such a thing prevent illnesses, which develop and go unnoticed for much, much longer than nearly a minute? The accidents part of the equation makes far more sense, obviously, because one could simply rewind and move into a position to avoid it. That’s exactly what Franklin learns about this ring when it falls into his possession – and he discovers a whole lot more.
He uses it, for instance, to bolster his chances with Jala (Lovie Simone), a pretty and clearly interested co-worker with whom he starts up a serious romance – until, obviously, the other shoe drops. He eventually incorporates it into his schemes against the Big, Evil Company by staging a heist of sorts in a genuinely enjoyable sequence that takes advantage of the device’s comic potential. He also inevitably uses it to save lives when danger arises, as it does with the arrival of the film’s villain Sig Thorenson (Greg Germann), a rival of Burrell’s who wants his tech.
There are only occasions, though, when it seems like 57 Seconds is having fun with this premise in the ways that someone would want to have fun with it. For the most part, this is a deadly serious and utterly toothless thriller that strips away any sign of thoughtfulness in favor of a genre exercise.
Photo courtesy of The Avenue
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