Altered Reality (2024)

Altered Reality Review

Culture Representation. Set in an unidentified US city, the sci-fi/drama film “Altered Reality” has a cast mostly made up of white characters (with some African Americans, Asians and Latinos) who represent the working class, middle class and wealthy. Culture Audience: People who want to see time-travel movies no matter how nonsensical and badly made they may be will be the ones most likely to enjoy “Altered Reality.”

“Altered Reality,” which has a disjointed screenplay and bad acting as well as unfocused direction, is a convoluted drama about time travel and a murdered girl mystery. The movie ends with an unimaginative ending that appears rushed and tacked-on in order to cater to what the filmmakers probably think would be the most crowd-pleasing outcome. The only altered reality is this movie being not terrible according to its makers’ minds.

Directed by Don E. FauntLeRoy from a screenplay by Charles Agron, “Altered Reality” takes place in an unnamed U.S. city, although it was filmed in Georgia. It begins with showing a young girl about 5 or 6 years old sitting alone at a table in a wooded area near her house as she is making some drawings. Someone all dressed in black clothing, including a hooded sweatshirt, seems to be stalking her.

Viewers soon find out that the kidnapped girl’s name is Katy Cook (played by Quincy Faler). “Altered Reality” tells events out of sequence but lets viewers piece together what led up to this kidnapping if they are paying attention. It’s also revealed in the “Altered Reality” trailer that Katy was murdered.

Katy’s parents are business executive Oliver Cook (played by Agron) and homemaker Caroline Cook (played by Alyona Khmara), who have been having marital problems even before Katy was kidnapped. Oliver owns and runs a medical research company that is developing medication to cure terminal illnesses. He’s a workaholic who spends a lot of time away from home.

Oliver’s workaholism has taken its toll on his marriage and relationship with Caroline and Katy. Caroline feels neglected, and she suspects that Oliver has been cheating on her because she sees that he gets calls and text messages on his phone from women she doesn’t know. It’s also mentioned at one point that Katy has been feeling depressed because she thinks Oliver doesn’t love her.

On the day that Katy went missing, Oliver had promised that he would go bike riding with her. But instead, he broke that promise and was partying at a celebration with work colleagues because his company has made a major breakthrough in its research. Clinical trial results have shown that the company’s medication has cured all 5,000 people with terminal illnesses who were part of the most recent clinical trial.

In a meeting that took place earlier, Oliver was informed by the company lawyer Cooper Mason (played by Tobin Bell) and two others, Dr. Ross (played by Demi Castro) and Spencer Ross (played by Kamran Shaikh), that the pills can be sold for $50,000 each. Once it goes public, the company is expected to make billions of dollars. Understandably so, Oliver and Cooper are overjoyed; Oliver shares some of his plans with Cooper about how he is going to spend this money.

Meanwhile at a party where people are celebrating this business success of Oliver’s, Katy gets kidnapped. Caroline feels guilty because she was supposed to be watching her but only looked away for a few minutes. After Katy disappears Caroline starts calling Oliver desperately many times but he doesn’t answer any of her calls because he’s too busy having fun with his coworkers.

Oliver eventually gets Caroline’s messages and rushes home. But it’s too late. Katy has vanished without a trace, and there don’t seem to be any clues as to who did this or why. According to the movie nine months later still nothing has been discovered about what happened during Katy kidnapping case even though we learn later on in the movie that she was killed.

Because of his company’s “miracle drug” Oliver has become extremely wealthy over these past nine months since the kidnapping occurred. However they haven’t given up hope yet while being devastated by guilt over their daughters disappearance into thin air they remain determined find out what happened somewhere out there someone knows something about where katy might be found alive or dead if she’s still alive olivers life will never ever go back its normal again least not until shes comes back home safe healthy happy forever more keeping mind always one day closer than yesterday towards reuniting with katy wherever may currently reside becoming increasingly frustrated due lack progress made thus far finding answers regarding whereabouts which forces him plunge deeper into despairing abyss but this doesn’t stop him from continuing searching for her because even though he’s coping badly with grief than ever before since katys abduction which has caused his relationship breakdown between himself caroline while attempting move on from past events by distancing himself emotionally especially home life altogether even leaving behind oliver has managed become very rich indeed after some point following becoming wealthy buys spring manor bed-and-breakfast resort.

Which holds fond memories for him since he was a child visiting there every year but continued this tradition throughout adulthood marriage fatherhood until recently when things started falling apart around them especially during last few months leading up until now where they are barely speaking let alone sharing same roof anymore marbles however were considered “a bottomless pit repair bills” according to advice given cooper who eventually bought property anyway because its sentimental value outweighed financial costs associated with purchasing such an establishment screenplay only gets worse at certain points primarily related plot involving spring manor portions film story line weakest point within entire movie script writing is not well done or thought out after all these years knowing one another very well having spent many seasons together during their lives both have gotten used seeing each other around often so much does recognize jacks presence immediately when he appears behind him out thin air.

Once you know these things and they are quickly apparent to Oliver it’s clear that Jack has secrets concerning Oliver’s ancestors, and that there will be some time travel centered around Spring Manor. The cinemetography lighting turns brown in the time-traveling scenes. It’s all so hokey and predictable. The musical score by Andrew Morgan Smith is trying to evoke noirish thrillers from the 1950s, but it sounds very out of place in a movie that takes place mostly in the 2020s.

Oliver is talking to Jack outside at Spring Manor one day when they’re alone. Oliver tells Jack he has a headache, so Jack pulls out a pill bottle and gives him one. He tells him not to take it until after he finds out what’s in them. Oliver says he’s been having these headaches for awhile and why he gets these headaches is the most obvious thing once he figures out that his ability to time travel has arrived. But it takes an ungodly long amount of time into the movie (more than two-thirds) before this discovery is made.

When Oliver gets this pill from Jack, there’s trouble in the Cook household when Oliver comes home to find a woman (whose face isn’t shown on camera), sitting down on their couch, claiming she’s his mistress and has just told Caroline about their affair. This so-called mistress shows Caroline proof on her phone of him cheating on her. Caroline is devastated and immediately tells him she wants a divorce. This scene happens early on in the jumbled timeline of events presented throughout the film, although we also revisit this moment much later, when the identity of this “mistress” is revealed again though this reveal isn’t exactly shocking either.

Oliver becomes suicidal after Caroline asks him for a divorce; before heading off somewhere with plans to hang himself, however, he stops by a strip club where Cooper got them into the VIP and hands a seemingly large amount of cash over to a stripper named Brittany, whose stage name is Vixen (played by Kayla Adams), telling her he wants her to use this money for Brittany’s underage daughter’s future college education. Oliver met Brittany that night at the strip club when he went with Cooper and his date Alex Parker (played by Krista Dane Hoffman, also known as Krista Dane King), a seductive fashion executive who happens to casually know Caroline because they’re in the same yoga class.

All of these storylines and subplots are messily shown or explained throughout “Altered Reality,” which sloppily handles flashbacks with poorly edited scenes taking place during present day. There’s also involving someone from the past named Kate (played by Kate Reilly) having a personal connection with certain people in the story. Ed Asner shares top billing in “Altered Reality,” but his screen time in the movie (as Jack’s family member Mike Wilson) amounts to less than five minutes.

Agron, the writer and star of “Altered Reality” which he also produced seems to have made a vanity project, given his acting performance is one of the worst in a movie full of bad acting. The film tries to mash together a bunch of different story ideas into one big concept, but it doesn’t work; it’s like trying to fit puzzle pieces that don’t go together. Even if you overlook all the plot holes and unanswered questions, “Altered Reality” is still an extremely boring movie, supposed to be a sci-fi thriller but really just another sci-fi clunker.

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