Review: Long Story Short

Time travel movies are all about agency. The fun comes from seeing someone moving outside the normal flow of time, and then using that to change things (or try to). It's not the actual traveling through time that's the hook (we all travel through time every day), it's what the characters do with that ability that keeps us watching. Long Story Short gets there, but it definitely takes its time.

Teddy (Rafe Spall) is a procrastinator. After he met current partner Leanne (Zahra Newman) by pashing her by mistake on New Year's Eve, their relationship has slowed to a crawl. It's been three years and he's only just proposed to her; when they're going to get married is anyone's guess. But when he's called out about it by a mysterious stranger (Noni Hazelhurst) - at his father's grave, no less - he's spurred into action... briefly.

The night of their wedding he's still putting things off (booking a honeymoon, mostly), when he stumbles across a strange wedding gift: a can that comes with a card reading "do not open for 10 years". He lies down to sleep, and when he wakes up in what he thinks is the next morning, it's actually a year later, Leanne is pregnant, and he starts freaking out.

The "freaking out' stage of the story goes on for longer than you might think, as Teddy barely gets time to find his bearings in one time before he's swept ahead another year. There's no time for any real forward planning; all he can do is take in the yearly updates on his life - and increasingly he's not happy with what he's hearing.

Thanks to some solid work from writer / director Josh Lawson, this feels like a much bigger film than it is. With a tiny cast (Ronny Chieng as Teddy's best mate is pretty much it) and a story that largely takes place in one apartment (don't worry, Teddy goes outside eventually) this still manages to feel like a full scale rom-com. The performers are a big plus too: both Spall and Newman are consistently entertaining as characters traveling in different directions in life.

The contrast between the two keeps the film watchable even when the story is running on rails. Spall's frantic panicking as a man in love who's seeing that love slip away (being flung through time might have something to do with it too) keeps the energy up, while Newman gets to be the more level-headed of the two while convincingly showing their relationship ebbing away.

As for the "running on rails" part. it gets pretty obvious where this is heading early on, and annoyingly Teddy has zero agency for most of this film - he can't influence events in any real way, as no sooner has he figured out what's going on that he's off again. How this must look to outsiders is never considered; he just goes a bit strange for a few minutes each wedding anniversary then snaps back.

There's a bit of an attempt to tie this all in with some personal growth for Teddy (putting things off and working too hard is bad), but his love for Leanne is never in doubt. The message here is basically "life's too short", which is fine as messages go but once you've said it you still have another 89 minutes left of movie to fill.

Long Story Short is basically too good-natured to have any real fun with the plight of its hero, with most of the comedy more about assuring the audience that the mood is going to stay light than scoring any real laughs. It's a slight story, but a charming one - just don't ask any questions about how they could possibly afford their Sydney beachside apartment.

- Anthony Morris