I know it is early, but Predestination is a strong contender to end up on my Top 10 list for the best films of 2015. Due to a low budget, the Spierig Brothers tell their time travel story through strong characters and stronger writing. Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd would recoil in horror at the situation the main character (Ethan Hawke) creates.
The story is pretty simple: a man (Hawke) travels back in time to stop the “Fizzle Bomber” from killing thousands of people in New York City. At a bar he works at, a mysterious person named Jane (Sarah Snook) walks in and tells the bartender her crazy story about mysterious people, secret agencies, children, and love.
The story the Spierig brothers wrote is based on a famous short story by Robert Heinlein. On top of that story, the brothers construct a fascinating bombing mystery that seamlessly fits into the already juicy short story, asking compelling questions about choice and, to flip the tables, if choice even matters. The brothers throw us off right away, establishing the bartender character to start the film, then 15 minutes later, the story focus changes to Jane. As the disoriented audience tries to figure out how these stories fit together, one plot twist comes after another, like peeling layers on an onion. Like a good thriller, some plot twists you’ll see, some you won’t, but the fun is piecing it together. Also in Predestination’s favor, the time travel stuff is minimized to the main couple characters, and circulates around a confounding paradox.
Sarah Snook is a revelation as Jane the barfly. A lot is asked of the untested actress, given an enigmatic hurt mess, and she nails all of the character beats and then some. Ethan Hawke is the calming force there to help Snook along. Hawke makes all the movies he is in better; here there is a scene at the end where he simultaneously plays scared, irate, eccentric, and determined across from no one and he nails it without Nicholas Caging the part. Snook and Hawke have to play many scenes off of no one, and they excel across the board.
I spent about an hour afterward piecing together the intricate labyrinth that was Predestination, about the highest praise I can give a complex, compelling story. This movie smartly cast Ethan Hawke, as he makes 3 sneaky great movies to 1 awful one. So next filmmaker considering hiring Hawke, you’ve been warned.