He dar Capn' Tarpals, Mesa back.... Heh heh... Sorry, It's merely me, Harry. God I'm tired, but I'm updating from Kirby Lane... A trusty cup of coffee, and a never ending trough on the way. I'll update... if it kills me. I have been awake since 4:30 in the A.M. Well, enough self-flagelluation, on to the news... I haven't heard of this film, until now that is... So I'm just gonna turn this on over to the Neon Monkey...
Been reading your site for years but have rarely had the chance to contribute anything. I don't know if there's much interest in a little British romantic comedy with a bunch of relatively no-name actors but I enjoyed it so I thought I'd take this opportunity to share my thoughts. You can call me Neon Monkey.
Anyway, I'm not sure what kind of release schedule "Twice Upon a Yesterday" has in the states but I live in Montreal and just caught a preview screening here. A buddy of mine works at a company affliated with a small film company here so hopefully I'll be scoring more passes and will be able to add my 2 cents for little guys from time to time. Firstly, pretty damn good movie. The premise is basically that of a struggling actor (played by someone who's name I can't remember for the life of me...he's the actor who was sleeping with his onscreen sister, Patsy Kensit, in Angels and Insects) who loses his girlfriend after admitting to cheating on her. The movie begins a year later as the ex-girlfriend, played by the AMAZING Lena Heady, is preparing to marry someone else. During a fit of drunken despair, our inebriated hero runs into 2 garbagemen evoking references of Don Quixote who give him an opportunity to travel back a year in time to avoid telling his girlfriend about the affair. What follows is essentially a charming little romantic comedy that evokes thoughts of fate and destiny ala Sliding Doors.
The film is directed by Maria Ripoll who is yet another person involved with this movie who I have never heard of but expect to in the future. Another notable inclusion in the cast in Penelope Cruz as Louisa, the new girl in the protagnist's (DAMN - I wish I could remeber his name) life. From seeing her name to watching her throughout the latter half of the film I had the odd feeling of knowing her from somewhere but I couldn't quite place it. Later that night I realized that I had seen her years ago in the Spanish film, "Jamon, Jamon". This I remember because I was a teen and she was naked quite a bit and the combination of those two factors led to a happy memory.
Anyway, as for the actual film...I enjoyed the hell out of it. I went with zero expectations just content to see a free movie but had the pleasure of watching quite the enjoyable movie. The acting was excellent...escpecially by the three leads (might I add again that I have fallen in love with Lena Heady and will be looking for anything she's done on video just to watch her for another 2 hours). One complaint is that the film could lose 10-15 minutes. This isn't to say that is was overlong but just that it seemed to lag at times. The music was good if slightly repetitive at times (though I guess that might make sense given that we're dealing with time travel).
Anyway, besides the strong performances the writing was top notch with clever bits of humour mixed with genuine emotion making the lead male a goofy sort of every-man. Without giving anything away, I thought this film was a great way of commenting of the belief that some people are just meant to be together and some aren't...no matter the time, place, or situation. Even if you don't believe that, this movie makes you wonder if things in your own life are really meant to be.
Catch ya on the flip side,
Neon Monkey
