Predestination

Overview

Melbourne masquerades as New York in Predestination, the latest film from German-Australian directing duo Michael and Peter Spierig. Reuniting the twin filmmakers with their Daybreakers star Ethan Hawke, this slickly produced time-travel noir attempts to put its own distinctive spin on one of sci-fi's most thoroughly exploited sub-genres.

There are plenty of intriguing concepts beneath the movie's stylish surface, although often their delivery leaves a lot to be desired. Nevertheless, some old-school vibes — and an astounding, career-making performance from actress Sarah Snook — ensures Predestination is worth your precious time.

Adapted, and expanded, from Robert A. Heinlein's 13-page short story All You Zombies, much of the first half of the film takes place in a dive bar in New York, where a time-travelling secret agent (Hawke), on the trail of a terrorist mastermind, is working undercover serving drinks. One evening, he strikes up a conversation, seemingly at random, with a sullen young man named James (Snook), who bets the barkeep a bottle of whiskey he's got the best story the place has ever heard.

And it's certainly a corker of a yarn. James, it would seem, began his life as Jane, abandoned by unknown parents on the steps of a Cleveland orphanage. A bright, tough young woman, Jane very nearly becomes one of the first female astronauts, only to be ruled out by an unexpected pregnancy. The father of the child abandons her soon after, although the shock is overshadowed by a revelation from her doctor: it turns out Jane has a second set of fully functioning (albeit internal) male reproductive organs, and that complication from her pregnancy will leave her no choice but to transition into a man.

How James's incredible story is connected to Hawke's manhunt isn't immediately clear — although it's obvious from the cryptic way the brothers frame the flashbacks – always obscuring certain faces — that the cogs will eventually interlock. The second half of the film, wherein Hawke offers James the chance to travel back and change his past, is positively overflowing with time paradoxes and plot twists.

The problem is, anyone with even a passing familiarity with time-travel stories will see them coming at least three scenes before they do. It's not that the revelations aren't interesting on an intellectual level; they just never result in the dropped jaws and shocked gasps that the Spierigs would obviously like.

Still, if their script could use some polish, they succeed in delivering style. From Hawke's fedora and six-shot revolver to his portable time machine disguised as a violin case, the feel of Predestination is a particular brand of retro-futuristic cool. Likewise, the narrative device of two strangers swapping stories across the bar has an enjoyably hardboiled quality to it and helps disguise the fact that the entire first half of the movie is basically one giant dump of exposition.

It also helps a great deal that Snook is the one who's delivering it. Hawke brings his typical mix of wryness and intensity, while Noah Taylor is dapper is his seemingly all-knowing handler. But it's the Adelaide-born actress who clearly runs away with the film, ranging from tough and emotionally guarded to devastatingly raw. So affecting are the scenes immediately before and after James' transition that you could almost do away with the time travel story altogether.