'TiMER' review

Emma Caulfield (Credit: Present Pictures)

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What if you could strap a clock on your wrist that would count down to the exact second you’d meet your soul mate? Oona O’Leary (Emma Caulfield) lives in that world, and even though almost everyone has one, her “timer” is blank. It turns out a timer only works if both halves of the couple-to-be wear one, so Oona searches for her soul mate among the few guys who haven't made the leap. Instead, she's swept away by carefree drummer Mikey (John Patrick Amedori), whose timer still has four months to go. Meanwhile, Oona's stepsister Steph (Michelle Broth) has a different problem: her timer says her soul mate is still a couple decades out of reach, relegating her to a string of meaningless sexual encounters until she meets Dan (Desmond Harrington), a sweet and timer-free widower.

The buzz: High concept, low budget. The first feature from young filmmaker Jac Schaeffer premiered at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival and boasts a cast mostly recognizable from TV.

The verdict: With low production values and flat visuals, “TiMER” initially seems like a feature length student film. But even as Schaeffer’s lack of directorial finesse threatens to doom the project to obscurity, her script keeps making a case for more. Schaeffer gambles by playing her “what if?” sci-fi premise as a romantic comedy, but it works by injecting some welcome freshness into a stale genre. The film’s dialogue and plotting are considerably sharper than the Hollywood standard and well served by Caulfield’s superb comic timing (honed during her scene-stealing years on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”). Despite the far-fetched premise, the movie takes its characters and their issues seriously, right down to an ending that proves too smart to cater to conventions. For all its low budget shortcomings, “TiMER” has a scruffy charm you just can’t buy.

Did you know? One of the film’s wisely rejected potential titles: “Love is a Hot Mess.”

[“TiMER” is available via Tribeca Film on demand service through Amazon.com, DirecTV and select cable providers.]

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