At the time of writing, this movie had an 8.5 average rating on IMDB, which even with only 1000-ish votes cast, is good. This caused me to check this movie, of which I didn’t have any previous knowledge except for the fact that it starred Ryan Reynolds, the actor whom I personally knew from Van Wilder and the turd erh I mean third Blade movie.
Reynolds plays a rather boring guy called Frank Allen who writes all his daily actions down on cards. As long as he follows the actions he has written down on the card of the day, nothing can go wrong.Obviously that’s exactly what happens when his helpful wife tries to help him a bit on the day of an important meeting by setting the clock ten minutes ahead. Only, she does it the wrong way around and ends up setting the clock ten minutes earlier. First consequence is Reynolds missing the ferry, as a result he misses a meeting, which starts a snowball effect that eventually has a devastating effect on his life.
The set-up of the movie is hardly original: boring guy encounters a challenge, changes his life around and usually discovers some big truth as well. However, even a common subject can be very interesting and/or entertaining when it is brought to you in a good way. That’s where Chaos Theory falls a bit flat. This is a one-man show by Reynolds. Mortimer and Townsend get a bit of screen time as his wife and best friend respectively, but their characters aren’t really interesting. Frank Allen is the only guy we care about. As well, he isn’t always helped by the scenario. When you hear a guy with a good job, a house, a pretty wife and kid complaining he doesn’t have anything in life, it’s a bit hard to believe. The same applies to Emily Mortimer’s reaction when she receives a certain phone call. Surely she would have been a bit more patient or understanding.
After 45-ish minutes I looked at the timer thinking the movie was about to end, only to see I was only halfway through. A minute or so later a new twist came up in the movie, providing for enough suspense to stretch it out a bit longer. Still, by that time I already felt the best part had gone. The climax is a bit pale, even though his daughter offers more sensitive souls amongst us the opportunity to shed a tear. All in all, a rather average movie with a good Ryan Reynolds.
