Primer

Achieved Review
January, 2006

Primer
Carruth, 2004



On its exterior, Primer is a film about time travel. If you dig deeper, it still is a film about time travel. In fact the science and theory behind time travel is extremely complicated in Primer, and it would be easy for one to assume that even the core of Primer is about time travel. However, deep down inside Primer is about human trust, power and the question of 'if you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything?'. All of this makes for one of the most intellectually challenging movies I've seen in a long, long time.

I am not going to flat out lie and say I understood everything about Primer. In fact, I won't even flat out lie and say I understood half of Primer. Between the techno babble about science and physics, and the convincingly complicated explanation of how time travel can be achieved in Primer, I was sort of lost. I found myself having to step back and not encumber myself with specifics, but rather with the big picture. For example, never mind what they are talking about when they investigate the protein, but rather it is easier to understand what the repercussions of it are, which were that the little wooden man had been in the machine for much longer than it appeared. In this respect it was a little easier to understand.

Later on it gets even more complicated, when the time travel appears to begin. There are so many 'doubles' and what not that it makes it confusing. You actually cannot possibly understand everything Primer shows you in the first viewing because there are many things you see and many things that are foreshadowed early on that mean nothing to you until later on, like the earpiece for example. This makes Primer a prime movie to watch multiple times. In the last day I've seen it three times and then I sifted through an official Primer message board trying to understand everything that happened in the short runtime. This all makes for an extremely rewarding intellectual experience of exploration into the depths of this film. Not bad for a movie that only cost $7000 to make.

In addition to the awesome mechanics and complexity of the time travel, which the movie convinces is entirely possible, we are also given a great character study. You see, from about nine minutes into the movie, the two characters are already fighting each other due to lack of trust. On your first viewing it is impossible to know this, so instead you see their trust gradually decay over time. Watching it again shows the ramifications of this and you get a clearer idea of what each character did to combat the other. I thought it was really very dynamic in this respect.

Surprisingly, the actors who played Abe and Aaron were actually really very good. Not only were they wholly convincing, but they went about and beyond their pay grade (which I can only assume was about zero dollars) and put in genuine preformances. The director, who also was one of the actors...and the screenwriter...and music composer...and editor...also put in a huge effort - and that is an understatement. He was the brainchild of this movie, and he put everything he had into it. It may have easily been a bomb, but it turned out his efforts turned a profit and he won a bunch of awards and was sponsored by MGM. Shane Carruth really did a superb job with this, especially for his first movie as it looks very professional and doesn't at all look like it was done for $7000.

Finally, I have to admit that I actually thought Primer was unnerving at times. There was something so very surreal and unnatural about it. The music also made the atmosphere quite uncomfortable. Maybe it was just me, or maybe it was because I watched it late at night, but it was certainly a 'different' experience.

I guess what I am trying to sum up is Primer is a richly rewarding experience. Not only does it have the mechanics and repercussions of time travel, but it has great characters and an awesome replay value. This is one of those treasures that no one watched, which is unfortunate because I think a lot of people would be truly intrigued and inspired by this movie. If you look around the internet you can find there is actually quite the following for this movie, which people writing up explanations and theories to every aspect of the movie. These are also defiantly worth checking out, especially this one: which attempts to create a timeline which can help you understand what is happening during the runtime. If you can handle the technology language, which you are likely not to understand, and you can perhaps give it more than one viewing, there are few other movies which will make you think quite as much as Primer. I actually went to bed after watching it a second time, thought about it as I fell asleep, then dreamt about it, and when I woke up and continued to ponder the many variables Primer presents. That's the kind of film Primer is.