[An e-mail to a friend.]
I finally watched Primer last night. Liked it. Though I admit I don’t understand all of it.
Overall I thought it was very well done for a low budget film. I really liked how the first half of the film focused on the engineering, entrepreneurship, finances- the ho-hum aspects of creating the machine. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind took the same approach, where the sci-fi aspect of the story is made to look routine. The facility where a patient may have his memory erased looks like a dirty health clinic in a downtrodden neighborhood. The technicians are twenty-somethings who bicker and flirt with each other rather than pay attention to the procedure they’re performing. Primer also took this approach- two guys working on an engineering project in their garage ala Hewlett Packard. Much more convincing than top secret government programs, mad scientists, wall-to-wall computers, and all the other clichés. Also, the language they used was convincing. Technical enough to convey they’re conducting a scientific experiment; vague enough not to give away exactly what they’re up to.
Once the film got to the central conflict I began to lose interest. It was still engaging, it’s just with films like these I look for the essential message and don’t care to sift through all the details. Call it a lack of attention or a personal hang-up, but I dislike films that require more than one viewing to understand. Sometimes the need for multiple viewings or consultation with Internet discussion boards is trumpeted as a badge of honor (as with Donnie Darko) but I see it as self-indulgent on the part of the writer and director. It may be their baby, but to me it’s just one film among many. Again, maybe my fault.
Primer warned me if I screw with causality, causality will screw with me. I understand that. I’m a little hazy on the timelines, interactions with time-doubles, the machine within a machine, the fail-safe machine, etc.
I would definitely recommend it. My complaint is more a personal hang-up than a real criticism of the film.