Alice Lowe plays a hopeless romantic who falls for the same man every time she’s reincarnated in this history-spanning romantic comedy.
Alice Lowe made her feature directorial debut Prevenge back in 2016 and now she’s back with her sophomore effort Timestalker.
In this offbeat romantic comedy, Lowe plays Agnes, a hopeless romantic who always falls for the same man, Alex (Aneurin Barnard), suffers a grim death and is reincarnated. She eventually becomes aware that she’s always chasing Alex in every lifetime – and it never works out well – so she tries to break the cycle.
The film begins in Scotland in 1688 with a scene reminiscent of The Crucible and jumps through periods of history every time Agnes dies, ending up in 2117 with a bunch of futuristic rebel punks.
Timestalker has a very specific (and super British) sense of humour so it will not appeal to everybody. You have to be able to tap into its wavelength in order to enjoy it. While the concept is original and inspired and the time periods are brought to life very well, the jokes are very hit and miss.
While the comedy is a bit shaky, it’s still a lot of fun to watch. Each timeline presents new visuals, characters and relationships and it’s exciting to see what those will be in each chapter. In addition to Lowe and Barnard, Tanya Reynolds, Nick Frost, Jacob Anderson and Kate Dickie pop up in almost every time period as new characters.
The French Revolution-era chapter is the most pleasing visually (the towering heart-shaped wigs!) but the story set in 1980s New York is the most satisfying narratively. This is where Agnes becomes the stalker of the title, as she is obsessed with Alex, who is now an Adam Ant-style rock star. Barnard’s music videos and live performances are funniest scenes in the film.
Timestalker takes a minute to get used to and the comedy doesn’t work overall but it gets better and better as it goes along and it is bold, quirky and original.
In cinemas from Friday 11th October.
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