2:22

2:22

The strangest element of this cheaply-made coincidence film of “2:22” is its peculiar timing. It is released onto theater and VOD on the same day as a JAY-Z album another numericals inclined, 4:44. When was the last time you saw two different movies with time titles in one day? What are the odds for even numbers? What if this means something? Or maybe it doesn’t mean anything at all, as in much of this overwrought movie.

There’s an opening voiceover by Michiel Huisman who plays an air traffic controller that sets things up in life like patterns. In his line of work, things get easier when he sees flight plans with a touch of savant syndrome (at least portrayed that way), but it keeps cropping up elsewhere in life as well.

Heading to Grand Central Station on a bike every morning he sees various people doing the same things and even saying similar words such as ‘women laughing’ or ‘can I help you?’ or car horn among others. Is it city ambience or what else? Strangely enough, there are similar patterns Dylan sees at Grand Central station couples hugging, pregnant woman, group of school kids just before every day at 2:22pm something goes wrong either glass randomly breaks somewhere around the station or light bulbs burst above.

However, however much these concepts suggest about how everything seems to follow a pattern or repeat itself, this film is aimed towards being a love story instead. There’s a classical meet-cute where he meets Sarah (Teresa Palmer) an art curator whose plane he almost caused to collide into another plane while she was on board which is certainly no romantic tale. Their conversation goes like this which actually comes out naturally from their mouthes : “I was on that flight.” “I nearly killed you.” “No, you saved me.”

Later on during the movie, Jonas, Sarah’s jealous artist boyfriend puts on a hologram display that replicates exactly what Dylan has been seeing. Is Dylan going crazy? Is everything he sees every day just a coincidence, one in a billion chance? There are more threads even involving a murder from 30 years ago at Grand Central station. The director Paul Currie has done an admirable job with the movie but doesn’t have the chops to make all of these magic beans grow into one captivating entity.

Like “The Number 23” or “Knowing” before it, “2:22” breaks an unwritten rule about coincidences in movies, where if details in the script are made so obvious, of course patterns will arise. There is little wonder and much more writing going on in this movie as though it’s screenwriters trying to pull off eight jumps at once. About halfway through “2:22”, you’re watching it simply waiting for some sense to emerge in its storyline. In the end it does happen for some goony reason I won’t give away but can say that I couldn’t smile less.

Even showing you everything from his apartment workouts and biking through city streets to him furrowing his brow while picking up his keys, rising actor Huisman still does not make “2:22” an argument for him being as solid lead as he can be.

His character, like the other human beings in this film, registers quickly as wooden, and is unable to change that destiny. It just seems odd then when strange things happen in the world it comes off more like he is posing than contemplating any intellectual curiosity and he doesn’t really have a very good sense of humor to add a few more dashes to his charisma. But if you’re a “Game of Thrones” fan who wants to see Huisman play the sexiest air traffic controller alive, “2:22” has that.

The busy nature of the movie doesn’t make it work any better. There’s a whole first act about his work as an air traffic controller, complete with high-paced air traffic control work, that could largely be excised, even if it makes him look super cool and lets him say “punch it!” into a phone while in close-up. And since Dylan drives in cab avoiding what appear to be predetermined accidents at the last possible moment before impact in other sequences where tension is building up from near misses and editing remains too choppy so as not to create tension.

At least through dialogue or standout visuals, the movie seems to acknowledge its lack of grandeur on an intellectual level and instead sticks with simplicity. Dylan says out loud key connections when they are made which causes them not to be profound anymore. However there was one funny scene where amidst his madness in trying to figure everything out in his apartment by writing on glass pane; he put down the brief but very helpful phrase: ‘2:22 BOOM!’

Who knows where the idea ran dry for this film because at least several drafts ago maybe? More so than anything else “2:22” wants so desperately to come across as clever which often times means it’s not very clever at all.

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