The Long Wait for Love

Speculative fiction has a way of finding truth within a (sometimes outlandish) premise. The what if scenario can cut through to some deeper meaning even if the concept on hand seems sometimes silly or weird. “What if we were all batteries living in virtual reality, controlled by machines?” seems silly on its face, but it did lead to one of the great sci-fi films, The Matrix, so it’s hard to say that a weird concept can’t lead to a fantastic final product.

Now, I’m not going to say that the silly little romantic comedy Timer is on the same level as The Matrix. In fact, I’d be willing to bet this is probably the only review that mentions both films in the same breath. But what Timer does is create a very simple concept that audiences can instantly understand, a kind of speculative “what if”, and then follows the ramifications of that concept out to its natural conclusions. It makes for a fun, breezy watch that takes its own ideas seriously. It’s not hard sci-fi, but that doesn’t keep it from getting to some solid truths for its characters and its story.

The concept in Timer is that, at the age of puberty, anyone is able to get a timer put onto their wrist. This timer, when it activates, will show the exact day that the person will meet their true love. The alarm goes off at midnight, and then sometime the next day the true love shows up, and a little jingle plays when your eyes meet. That’s great in theory, as most people don’t tend to have to wait for too long, perhaps sometime in their early adulthood. But that implies the timer works without a hitch. Sometimes, though, things don’t work out the way their users want.

For Oona O'Leary (Emma Caulfield), she has a timer that, as of yet, doesn’t have any time listed on it. That’s because whoever is supposed to be her soulmate hasn’t yet gotten a timer themselves. The not knowing drives her crazy because she just wants to finally be able to fall in love, something her type-A personality won’t let her do with the thought of her soulmate out there, somewhere, hanging over her head. That is until Mikey Evers (John Patrick Amedori) wanders into her life. He works at the grocery store near her, and he’s also in a band, and while he normally wouldn’t be the kind of guy she’d go for, somehow sparks fly. However, he already has a timer, and it’s counting down for a few months from when they meet. Can she let herself have a fling, maybe even fall in love, when she knows he’s not her guy and that she’s not his one?

Timer’s story is predicated on the idea that each person only has one for them, and that somehow this weird little timer (implanted on a person’s wrist) can tell them when love is going to come into their lives. It’s a silly concept because how would that even work? It’s not a hard science kind of concept, and the film doesn’t bother explaining any of the nitty gritty about it at all. You get a timer, it counts down, and then true love comes your way. That’s not science-y at all. It barely counts as sci-fi. More like science-fantasy, at best.

And yet, despite the silly premise, the film takes its concept seriously. Through three characters it manages to explore a number of facets of its idea, showing us all the ways that having a timer can go wrong, despite the fact that it’s supposed to take the guess work out of love. Naturally, our main example is Oona, who has a timer that, functionally, doesn’t work. Her true love doesn’t have one so she’s been left in a perpetual waiting game for 16 years, not knowing when or if it’ll ever happen. Is her love still alive? Will they ever get a timer? The not-knowing is worse than simply not having a timer at all.

Her sister has a different problem. Steph (Michelle Borth) has a timer that lets her know her true love is out there but she won’t meet them until she’s in her mid-40s. She’s been forced to wait all this time, with another 10-plus years to go, with no easy end in sight. Because of that, she’s been drawn to having meaningless flings with guys that already have their timers, getting off on the idea that she’s gotten to these men before they find their true loves. It’s a little sick, maybe, but then Steph has to find a way to deal with the fact that she won’t have love until, as she puts it, all her eggs have dried up.

But then the film gives us one more twist that shows sometimes knowing can be just as bad as not knowing. Their little brother, Jesse (Hayden McFarland), gets his timer when he comes of age, and his timer says he’ll meet his true love in seven days. He’s still a teen, too young to really know what true love even means, and suddenly he finds out, at age fourteen, that in seven days the girl he’ll spend the rest of his life with will wander in. How does a young guy even handle that kind of development? Jesse seems to like the girl he eventually meets, but that’s still a lot of pressure for young people to deal with.

The film works at its best when it’s following Oona, the main character and our main perspective into the story. Her relationship with Mikey is the driving force with the story, but it’s really her dynamic with Steph, too broken people with “broken timers”, that gives the film its heart. Oona struggles to let go and live the life in front of her while Steph struggles to take anything seriously since her love is still far, far in the future for her. Having “broken” timers effectively makes them broken people, and the film is really about how they have to learn to live their lives well.

But then there’s also the realization they both have, as the story goes on, that whether they have their true loves or not, what they really have is each other. They’re two sisters who have a bond closer than they could have with any guys, their two favorite people in each other’s lives, and that’s an important lesson they both have to learn. It gives the story real heart because it teaches a true lesson: just because you have a timer on your wrist that doesn’t mean you can ignore the important people right in front of you.

If there’s any real flaw with the film it’s that it introduces Jesse’s story and then doesn’t really explore the horror of the scenario he finds himself in. We check in with him briefly a couple of times, but in comparison to the deep dive into the trauma that Oona and Steph experience, Jesse’s situation is largely played for laughs. I would have liked getting to know his character a little better so we can understand the shock and horror he might be feeling realizing he’s only seven days from suddenly being thrust into his only relationship. The film makes it a foregone conclusion, something the parents of the young lovers have to deal with, but I feel like the film short changes Jesse (and his sudden girlfriend) by not giving them the space to explore their story at all.

Still, the film largely does work. It’s a romantic comedy, but one more on the order of I Love You Man than the standard weepy fare. The story is really about Oona and Steph, and not the boys they date, and once that comes into focus Timer really sings. It’s a sweet, fun story that explores its own concept well, all while giving us a story with real heart. That makes it an easy recommendation for anyone willing to get into the story’s concept.