Timing is Everything (11:14 (DVD))

Member Name: plipplop

Product:	11:14 (DVD)
Date:	01/05/08 (167 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clever, quirky, entertaining and darkly humorous

Disadvantages: Some of the unlikely plot material

A man drives home from a bar and is startled by a large object that falls onto his car from an overhead bridge. Upon investigation, he is horrified to find that the object is actually the body of a young man, his face literally beaten into his skull.

A middle-aged man despairs for the welfare of his daughter. Whilst taking his dog for a walk in a nearby cemetery, he finds his daughter's car keys - and a rather more disturbing item propped up against a gravestone.

Three college students drive through the streets, drinking beer, abusing passers-by and throwing objects from the car windows. When one of them finds himself in desperate need of a pee, he opens the window - with disastrous results.

Two young friends work in a late night grocery store. One of them has discovered that his girlfriend is pregnant and he desperately needs some cash to pay for an abortion. His only hope is to make it look like the store has been robbed and he needs his friend's assistance to set it up. Reluctantly, she agrees, but decides that to make it look authentic, she should somehow get shot in the process.

One town; multiple lives - but they all have one thing in common. At 11:14, their lives will all change - and things will never be the same again.

11:14 is one of those little-known films that you just stumble across by accident. Made on a modest budget in 2003, the film was directed by Greg Marcks, a previously unknown young actor whose film CV stretched only to an uncredited role in a David Lynch film. The film pieces together the events leading up to a car accident at 11:14 p.m. one night, but tells the story from multiple view points. Each of the segments links to the next, often in a number of different ways, but although the scenes are shown chronologically, most of the action takes place simultaneously. The finished article is somehow both simple and fiendish, marking the film as something of an unknown gem, destined to develop a cult following.

Comparisons with the likes of Crash, Babel and Memento are obvious and pertinent but 11:14 is rather less "worthy" than these Oscar winners, opting instead to focus on producing something more darkly comical in nature. Amidst a tale that features amputated body parts, a crushed skull and a hit and run victim, it might seem difficult to find much to laugh about but somehow, this is very much the case. The characters court mockery simply through their obvious stupidity (note to self: never urinate out of a car window) and the circumstance they find themselves in. Ever intend to dispose of a body and bloody clothes? May I suggest that you don't take the dog with you? In other hands (and handled in a different way) 11:14 would simply have been preposterous, but Marcks handles the subject matter with a sly, knowing humour that means the film's short running time fairly flies by.

He doesn't scrimp on big cast names either. For an unknown director, he manages to get some big names, for sure. Hilary Swank, Patrick Swayze and Barbara Hershey along with a quirky selection of lesser-known names to throw into the mix. None of them dominates the proceedings, given only that nobody has more than about 15 minutes' screen time, but collectively they work well, with no weak links. You get the feeling that this was almost a collective effort; Hollywood mates brought together to make something they really liked rather than something that would make a lot of money. This gives 11:14 a lot of charm.

The appeal comes from "spotting" things. There are strange little moments in each segment of the film that seem irrelevant, but it soon becomes apparent that they are rather more relevant to another segment. As the car featuring the lead character for your segment pulls out into the road, another car can be seen slowly crawling across the road in the distance for reasons unknown. The students throw food onto a passing vehicle, with no real consequence at the time, but later on, we see an entirely different perspective. Pretty much everyone is linked in some way, whether they know it or not, and across the film's hour and twenty minutes' running time, the audience is increasingly intrigued to find out how.

Marcks' directorial style is very simple; he doesn't do anything gimmicky or flash here, opting instead to allow the twisted story line weave the viewer into its web. The film is filmed entirely at night, often in what seems like an accidentally creepy way, the camera occasionally focusing on a discarded object or minor action that automatically gains more significance. It's all very coherent with nothing that will catch a relatively astute viewer out. Indeed, the film's real challenge comes from the fact that viewers will generally want to know what happens AFTER each of the segments, once the film's final reveal takes shape. The film carries a 15 certificate, largely for some fairly gruesome moments and some strong language but is probably targeted at a slightly older audience who might appreciate the pace and design of the film a little more.

It's good stuff. The pace of the film means that the director has to time things perfectly and pretty much gets it spot on. There is an inherently surreal feel to the thing that leaves you guessing what will happen next and in spite of comparisons to other films it all feels pretty fresh. The only real problem with the narrative is that some of the film's events push the boundaries of reality, given only that the film generally tries to feel "true to life". It's hard to imagine that people would do some of the things they do here or that some of the things that happen would actually play out like that. This is, nonetheless, a minor criticism of what is otherwise a pretty nifty and unusual little picture.

You can pick the region 2 DVD up for around £6 and at that price, this is highly recommended viewing.

Summary: An incident at 11:14 told from different perspectives