I love time loops and other character-driven time travel plots. And it was decently entertaining.
On the surface, One More Time doesn't seem to do a lot with this setup. But if you stay around long enough, you find a very interesting theme; nostalgia within the past. Amelia and Fiona were to dig up a time capsule at their 18th birthday, which puts the 18th birthday post an earlier event to be nostalgic about. Even when Amelia goes back to her 18th birthday, her friendship with Fiona is already a semi-distant memory. With no opportunity at reconciliation. The closest they get is when she watches Groundhog Day with her, but even there it feels very awkward. When trying to force a making up with Fiona in the subsequent time loops, she fails. I was very much expecting the time loop to end with her dropping her new friends for Fiona, doing the generic Groundhog Day resolution about character growth and making up for mistakes.
Instead, the film brings home two very different messages; firstly, that the past is irreversible, and secondly, that time is a continuous dimension, not a bilateral scale of 'the (happy) past' and 'the (miserable) present'. Which also explains that Fiona in the present is not resentful to Amelia anymore, as enough time having passed since their falling out, adding a somewhat optimistic element. If Amelia would have reached out to Fiona at the bar in the beginning, maybe they could have reconciled, dug up the time capsule together and this entire plot would not have happened.
So in a way, this film is very much deconstructive of the dominant time loop plot from films like Groundhog Day, where the character has to grow or make up for their mistakes in order to escape. That being said, on a thematic note it is very close to what I expected the entire film. It still has to do with Fiona, they just don't resolve it similarly. Which would be fine, if only it wasn't so insanely obvious for so long. That's a major misstep, how obvious it all is and how long it takes Amelia to realize. Realizing she is back to her 18th birthday also takes super long, when this is explicitly stated to her various times already. Fiona is so obviously set up and there are no red herrings in terms of theme to throw you off. In fact, this should be clear from the very start of the time loop, as she enters it while trying to read what Fiona put into the capsule.
Speaking of that, the reveal of Fiona's time capsule wish was nicely set up, as it becomes slowly obvious right before it is revealed and makes a lot of her behavior earlier make sense.
However, what does Fiona's wish have to do with anything? Why did she have to find it out specifically? Amelia dropped her best friend, that's tragic enough, and enough for her to feel bad and want to make up with Fiona. What can she do with knowing the wish? Why couldn't the resolution just be her realizing what she did ánd as I just said that there is no way of making up easily? As it is now, it is subvertive, but it makes little sense. And maybe the ending could have also been better if it ended a few scenes earlier, maybe with the characters smiling at each other, so as to keep it a bit more ambiguous as to if enough time has passed.
On the surface, One More Time doesn't seem to do a lot with this setup. But if you stay around long enough, you find a very interesting theme; nostalgia within the past. Amelia and Fiona were to dig up a time capsule at their 18th birthday, which puts the 18th birthday post an earlier event to be nostalgic about. Even when Amelia goes back to her 18th birthday, her friendship with Fiona is already a semi-distant memory. With no opportunity at reconciliation. The closest they get is when she watches Groundhog Day with her, but even there it feels very awkward. When trying to force a making up with Fiona in the subsequent time loops, she fails. I was very much expecting the time loop to end with her dropping her new friends for Fiona, doing the generic Groundhog Day resolution about character growth and making up for mistakes.
Instead, the film brings home two very different messages; firstly, that the past is irreversible, and secondly, that time is a continuous dimension, not a bilateral scale of 'the (happy) past' and 'the (miserable) present'. Which also explains that Fiona in the present is not resentful to Amelia anymore, as enough time having passed since their falling out, adding a somewhat optimistic element. If Amelia would have reached out to Fiona at the bar in the beginning, maybe they could have reconciled, dug up the time capsule together and this entire plot would not have happened.
So in a way, this film is very much deconstructive of the dominant time loop plot from films like Groundhog Day, where the character has to grow or make up for their mistakes in order to escape. That being said, on a thematic note it is very close to what I expected the entire film. It still has to do with Fiona, they just don't resolve it similarly. Which would be fine, if only it wasn't so insanely obvious for so long. That's a major misstep, how obvious it all is and how long it takes Amelia to realize. Realizing she is back to her 18th birthday also takes super long, when this is explicitly stated to her various times already. Fiona is so obviously set up and there are no red herrings in terms of theme to throw you off. In fact, this should be clear from the very start of the time loop, as she enters it while trying to read what Fiona put into the capsule.
Speaking of that, the reveal of Fiona's time capsule wish was nicely set up, as it becomes slowly obvious right before it is revealed and makes a lot of her behavior earlier make sense.
However, what does Fiona's wish have to do with anything? Why did she have to find it out specifically? Amelia dropped her best friend, that's tragic enough, and enough for her to feel bad and want to make up with Fiona. What can she do with knowing the wish? Why couldn't the resolution just be her realizing what she did ánd as I just said that there is no way of making up easily? As it is now, it is subvertive, but it makes little sense. And maybe the ending could have also been better if it ended a few scenes earlier, maybe with the characters smiling at each other, so as to keep it a bit more ambiguous as to if enough time has passed.
