In the world of TiMER, people wear devices with a countdown clock that will beep when you meet your true love. Some people depend entirely on this, which precludes them from forming relationships on their own if a person they meet isn’t on the same time. Oona (Emma Caufield) has a blank timer, which means her true love hasn’t gotten one so her clock can’t start yet. Her stepsister Steph (Michelle Borth) is constantly trying to set her up with men who have no timers. Oona meets, on her own, a laid back grocery clerk Mikey (John Patrick Amedori), whose personality is entirely different and not what she is expecting for her dream man—he’s younger, he’s a nerdy musician, he’s open and friendly, but his timer is three years ahead, meaning he hasn’t met his soulmate yet either (she’s a snooty orthodontist). Oona dates him in frustration for a one night stand, and gets flak for going out with him.
Meanwhile, Oona’s mother (JoBeth Wiliams) is ecstatic that her younger son, a teenager, is about to get a timer, and miraculously it is set to beep in a few days. Unfortunately, his “true love” is not who she thinks is exactly appropriate, although she ends up being accepting. Steph herself is trolling around to find her own true love with every young man who comes into the senior facility where she works, including the grandson of a resident.
The conflict is kind of romcom: Will Oona stay with her “unmatched” grocery clerk, or will she depend on her timer and push him out of her life?
I like how this concept plays on women’s biological clocks (it is the women in the film who are always trying to be matched up, whereas the male characters are less concerned about having or using the timer, one even gets the timer to show his woman that they are unmatched). That in itself is ironic and yet unfortunately true to the film’s premise. Oona spurns people who don’t have a timer or not matched to her own, and we are supposed to feel bad when someone lies to her about his status. So if a pig had a timer that matched, would she go with the pig instead of the guy she actually likes? Oona’s actions and way of thinking make it seem this way, and to me this makes her a very typical romcom type of character—career woman who wants Mr. Right and nothing else. She does have a complex problem, as the film gave a range of how people treated the timer and not just some gagging chick flick view. Oona gets to see these views, which causes her to waver in her confidence of the device, the views were all interesting and different POVs.
The character of Steph comes off as caustic and unwelcoming and her treatment of other people is jerky, although I’m sure she is supposed to come off as helpful to her sister. It’s a wonder that any man can like her at all. She was unlikeable from the start.
I liked the actor who played Mikey, he seemed more mature than Oona although he was younger and he played his role perfectly.
I side with the guys on this. They are the ones to make concessions for the women in their lives, and the women are ungrateful to them and treat them more as objects than people to value. The women see the timer narrow-mindedly, and the men can see beyond that. What surprised me was the ending, I’m not sure I like or not, it both did and didn’t quantify the premise of the film, and was thought-provoking.
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