oung, smart and ambitious, Aaron (Carruth) and Abe (Sullivan) have started up a technology company with a couple of other friends. Housed in a garage, their operation is small, but they want to go big. Aaron and Abe are convinced that's not going to happen, though, as long as they keep sinking their time and resources into the group's latest project, which the two think is a dead end. At this rate, they'll never be able to quit their day jobs.
Tinkering with the project one night, Aaron and Abe notice it exhibiting some strange results—inexplicable but interesting. As time goes on, the results get weirder and more compelling, but eventually Abe discovers what they mean—somehow during the course of their experiments the two have created a device that can move matter in time.
It takes the two engineers awhile to get used to such a fantastical idea, but once they do, two thoughts arise: how to keep this unbelievable discovery from their partners and how to make a bigger and better device—for the sole purpose of trying to send people, themselves, through time. The possibilities for being able to exist in two times simultaneously are beyond amazing.
But what could be more frightening than failing in such an endeavor? Succeeding.
Low-budget, but highbrow
One of the great things about most low-budget, independent science-fiction films is that they often rely heavily on their writing. This film is no exception. As its story moves from the complicated world of entrepreneurship to the mind-bending considerations of causality and paradox that go with all time-travel tales, Primer's narrative, as it folds in on itself, is like origami—ingenious and pleasing when successful, confusing and frustrating when not. It's hard science fiction that makes for one smart, complex movie, but this is also its problem—Primer becomes so complicated that it's likely to lose even the most engaged and nimble-witted of moviegoers at some point or another.
That doesn't mean that it's anything like unwatchable, however. Mazelike plot twists and turns aside, Primer's story elements and characterization are fantastic, with scientific themes intertwining with human relationships in some profound ways. The look and sound of the film are also splendid—rich and sophisticated cinematography conveying both a sense of sobering realism and psychological intensity; and some dynamic, at times Altman-esque, sound design and dialogue keeping the narrative lively and dramatically potent. The cast of presumably non-professional actors do an admirable job keeping the drama plausible and compelling.
Primer can perhaps best be understood and appreciated by taking into consideration its origins. After college, writer/director/producer/co-star Carruth actually worked as an engineer
for several years before jumping ship to do this film, his very first. So kudos to him for having the fortitude and ingenuity to pursue and successfully complete such an ambitious, intelligent and challenging project. In this work, entrepreneurship echoes time-traveling echoes filmmaking, in one big thematic feedback loop. The trajectory of all three of these things, Primer suggests, can be both erratic and rough, exciting and confounding—for characters, maker and audience alike, it turns out.
