Triangle

I read a review on this site for a movie called 13 Cameras that asked the question “what was the point of this movie?”. It asked this because, for 85% of the movie’s runtime, it was watching this couple move into a new house, bicker a lot, and the husband is dealing with a mistress that doesn’t want to let go. In the last 15 minutes or so, their creeper landlord kills the husband and abducts the wife, which makes the whole existence of the movie feel pointless. That could be asked of this movie too. At least this has better acting and a tighter script, but still ... when this movie ends, you ask yourself what the point is. It’s hard to criticize it without spoiling it, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, leave now. **SPOILERS** A group of friends goes sailing, they capsize, see an ocean liner, board it, and almost everybody except our main character Jess, is murdered by a mystery assailant. This all happens in a half an hour, and suddenly, you’re looking at the runtime wondering what now. The heroine prevails over assailant, but not before being told she has to kill them all to see their son again. Come to find out this movie is Groundhog Day, only even weirder. The second time around, the events change, but still lead to the same end results. That leads to a third loop, which brings us back to the beginning. So, it’s like there’s three small loops before the entire thing starts over again. It’s well executed, I’ll give it that. But the problems mount quickly. For instance, in loop 2, you see one of the boaters run away in fear to the boat’s roof, where she finds dozens of duplicate corpses of herself already there. But other people DON’T leave duplicate corpses. This happens again near the very end with a pile of dead seagulls, showing the loop is continuing unbroken, despite Jess’ best efforts. Why do some things accumulate and some don’t? Why does Jess see the meal in the banquet hall as rotten at one point, but it keeps resetting to fresh for everybody else. Not helping matters is an overly obvious exposition dump about the big ship’s name, Aeolus. For those who don’t know, Aeolus is part of Greek mythology; his son is Sisyphus, the man who cheated death twice and was condemned to roll a stone uphill forever, only to see it escape him and roll down to the bottom as he got to the top. So Jess is Sisyphus. Except WHY?!? What did she do to deserve this? The movie isn’t interested in answering that. It just wants to run through the cycle again to tell it’s pointless, Möbius strip of a story. Hell, even the ending makes no sense; if this whole thing is doomed to repeat, why does Jess seem unaware of what’s going on in the first loop? Another problem is the rest of the cast of characters. You have Nice Guy, Slab Bulkhead, Snobby McBitchmore, her husband Generic Yuppie, and Girl Who Dies In The Shipwreck. You don’t hear Nice Guy’s or Slab’s names until well past 30 minutes into the movie, and you find out nothing about them beyond those descriptions. They are human plot devices, chess pieces to be moved around the board. I want to like this movie more. I love the Groundhog Day conceit of a time loop. Happy Death Day used it to fuel a smart horror comedy, which proves it could also be used for straight up horror. But this isn’t scary. It’s tense, yes. And the way the script loops back in on itself and fills in the gaps of how this or that happened is mostly really good (aside from what happens after loop three ... they yada-yada pretty fucking hard about how Jess gets from the boat to land). But the problem is that the movie gives no reason for this happening, and no cathartic release. The loop just reloops. WHAT’S THE POINT THEN?!? How is that entertaining? Time loop movies NEED a way out. Otherwise, they end with no resolution, no point, no reason to be. Just questions and frustration. So, I give this movie points for trying and knowing how to build suspense, and for it’s insane attention to detail (even if it’s rules are inconsistent). But the ending is a total whiff, and ruins the movie’s goodwill.