Eve of Deconstruction: a review of The Adam Project

Eve of Deconstruction: a review of The Adam Project

Directed by Shawn Levy

Written by Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, Mark Levin

Produced by David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds

Cinematography Tobias Schliessler

Edited by Dean Zimmerman, Jonathan Corn

Music by Rob Simonsen

Production companies Skydance Media, Maximum Effort, 21 Laps Entertainment,

Distributed by Netflix

Cast

Ryan Reynolds as Adam Reed, a time pilot in a dystopian 2050 who risks his life to try and uncover the truth behind his wife’s disappearance.

Walker Scobell as young Adam Reed, a bullied 6th grader in 2022 who suffers from asthma.

Mark Ruffalo as Louis Reed, Adam’s father and a brilliant quantum physicist who wrote the algorithm necessary for controlled time travel. Reed died sometime in 2021 in a car accident, and Adam still suffers from depression over it.

Jennifer Garner as Ellie Reed, Adam’s mother. Garner also portrays her younger self in 2018.

Catherine Keener as Maya Sorian, a businesswoman who funded Louis’ research and later took advantage of his death to monopolize it for her own benefit and create a future where she is the most powerful woman in the world.

Keener also portrays her younger self through de-aging, with Lucie Guest as her body double.

Zoe Saldaña as Laura Shane, Adam’s wife and a fellow time pilot left stranded in 2018 after a failed attempt on her life. Saldaña also portrays her alternate version in the changed timeline.

Alex Mallari Jr. as Christos, Adam and Laura’s former colleague, now a ruthless security enforcer employed by Sorian.

There have been lots of movies about people involved in the creation of time travel going back in time to fix various mistakes and avoid a horrible outcome. The Terminator Series, Undone, Door into Summer, and Predestination are good examples of the sub-genre. Predestination, based on Heinlein’s “’–All You Zombies–’” is perhaps the most perfectly plotted of the type.

Adam Reed (Reynolds) is the son of Louis Reed, the inventor of time travel. Louis died a few years after inventing time travel, which allowed the invention to fall into the hands of his assistant, Maya Sorian, who uses it to seize control of the world. Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha and all that. As a result, 2050 is a dystopia. (OK, even worse than 2022.)

Adam escapes in a time jet, intent on going to 2018 and convincing dad not to write the formula for time travel. But evil director’s evil henchman Christos (Mallari) fires on the time jet, damaging it, with the result that Adam misses 2018 and hits 2022. There, he meets his widowed mom and his 12-year old self, a family damaged by the unexpected death of Louis and struggling to get by. It gives the older Adam a chance to find out what became of his wife, missing and presumed dead, and to try to fix the broken relationship between his younger self and his mom.

Sounds sort of grim, doesn’t it? It isn’t. Not by a long shot.

Inspired writing and solid acting team up to make this one of the most hilarious comedies of the year, and a time-travel story that is both funny and intelligent. Reynolds and the young Scobell deftly echo and mirror one another’s mannerisms and quirks as they team up to undo the mistakes and tragedies of the past. The dialogue is witty, and the action and pacing ensure the viewer will remain entertained throughout.

The movie was originally meant to star Tom Cruise, and I can’t help but think that it would have been a joyless slog. But ten years in development hell, Cruise lost interest, and the new cast and writers ensured that the could-be slog became a joyous romp. It’s almost as if someone went and messed with the timeline of the creation of the movie! Hmm…

In any event, it’s fun, it’s entertaining, and does so while treating its subject matter—time travel—with the utmost respect.