Being a brother-sister duo of thieves can be difficult.
Joseph (Adam David Thompson – “Glass”) and Sydney (Riley Dandy – “That’s Amor”) are on the run with a lot of cash after a robbery. The cops are in pursuit. They meet up at a diner and then head for an isolated farm where Joseph assures Riley that they can hide out for a couple weeks until the heat is off.
When they arrive at the farm the house looks deserted, with broken furniture strewn around the interior.
Yet, there are numerous clocks scattered about – in almost every room, in fact.
Distant police sirens are heard as the two robbers seek out a closet where they hide. Inside, Joseph begins reading instructions to Sydney, including Latin to be read into an old telephone. Just as the police reach the closet door … they disappear and Joseph and Sydney find themselves still in the house, but in a different time. Suddenly, everything is orderly, and the cupboards and fridge are stocked with food for 14 days. This is their hideout.
Director/writer Michael Felker’s feature film directorial debut is impressive. He tells us a spare tale, basically just two characters plus a disembodied voice giving them instructions. His protagonists think they are protected from the law, and, at first, their two weeks together are an opportunity to re-bond and rehash their lives together and apart. But in fact, they are trapped in a situation not of their making, never explained to them, and from which they have little chance of escaping. Despite the fact that the house sits on a broad expanse of lawn and field, they cannot venture far without becoming deathly ill. And the person who made it possible for them to hide there and to travel through time appears to have died or been sacrificed in an underground church beneath a mill – one of the farm outbuildings.
The director has placed his characters in a lonely setting, with the wide open spaces belying their imprisonment. We are even taken through a year of seasons – winter to winter – as they try to earn their freedom and destroy some unseen common enemy.
The dialogue Felker gives his duo is excellent, and the growing sense of desperation is palpable as Joseph and Sydney realize how totally dependent they are on their hidden “master.” My only disappointment is, as is too often true, the musical score, which is simply not adequate nor appropriately applied. However, there is nice placement of familiar pop tunes.
This is a slow mover, but the denouement is well worth the wait.
Runtime: One hour, 42 minutes
Availability: Currently streaming on many services for rent or buy
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