'Volition' Review: Time travel plot falls apart in its rush to create a mindblowing ending
Spoilers for 'Volition'
Deciding to do a time travel movie is always a risky move — the potential for plot holes multiplies with every jump. When the inconsistencies start to pile up, it's up to the film's entertainment value to be able to distract from them all, or at least make them worth it. 'Volition', unfortunately, is not entertaining enough to distract from every inconsistency it brings up. It's a frustrating watch, especially given how close it sometimes gets to the enjoyable movie it could have been.
James (Adrian Glynn McMorran) is a clairvoyant who coasts on his abilities, using his powers to gamble and help local crime boss Ray (John Cassini) to make just enough money to get by. On a routine job for Ray involving trying to foresee a safe way to hand off a bag of diamonds, James sees his own death and works to try and prevent it. This goes horribly wrong and a woman who gets tangled up in his affairs, Angela (Magda Apanowicz), pays a fatal price for it. This is when James, with the help of his foster father Elliot (Bill Marchant), discovers he can travel through time, and James spends the rest of the movie trying to set things right.
It's hard not to see this film as a comedy, as James messes up the simplest of tasks over and over again — forgetting major details, losing his keys, bumbling his way from one injury to another and generally making things worse for himself, or is that himselves? He goes through great effort to avoid communicating with his younger self. Although why that is, is never explained, given that he's actively trying to change the past and physically interacting with himself appears not to be a problem. The film appears to have built its entire identity around the ending, and it doesn't seem to care how little things make sense along the way.
There's a lot that it expects its audience to just accept and that doesn't just extend to its time travel aspects. Character motivations seem to be buried underneath the film's need to push the plot along. Angela has little purpose in the film beyond being there for James to explain the plot to and to give him a reason to dive back into the past over and over again to save her life. The best parts of the film are the performances by Frank and John Cassini, who seem to be part of a much more interesting movie about crime, family and betrayal entirely tangential to 'Volition'.
The film has its moments. It's got an amazing soundtrack that does a lot to give each scene a sense of tension that the script itself falls flat on. While the movie's writing may be weak, it's shot beautifully and could almost have worked as a great thriller if the main plot wasn't constantly getting in the way. There is good craft patched onto a weaker story.
'Volition' shoots high and hits low. It's so focused on crafting a tight ending that the middle keeps falling apart. It's possible to enjoy the movie, but the suspension of disbelief that that would require is gargantuan.
'Volition' is now available to purchase on Video on Demand.