Movie Review - Parallels

Year

2015

Genre

Drama

Story

A brother, Ronan Carver* and a sister, Beatrix Carver** who lives very separate lives receive a phone call from their estranged dad to meet him at a particular time, date and location. Thus begins the mysterious journey of this rather interesting Sci-Fi movie.

 

* Mark Hapka , whom I haven't seen before but he's been on Ghost Whisperer

** Jessica Rothe, who I haven't seen before either but she's been on Gossip GirlWhen Ronan went home to see his dad, he bumps into his sister who got the very same phone call from their dad. However, their dad was nowhere to be found. As they start looking for their dad around the neighborhood, that's when the unwitting 3rd member Harold (Eric Jungmann), their neighbor, joins in their adventure. Without any further clues to go on, the trio went to the address given to them by their dad as the meeting point, which is a multi-level commercial building. However, the building seems deserted and dilapidated within. Again, dismayed that they couldn't locate their dad, they exited the building. However, it wasn't the same world anymore! No, it wasn't time-travel. Apparently, they had traveled to a parallel Earth - same location, same time. On this earth, their city had just been devastated by nuclear bombs and understandably, the survivors are all rather angry and violent against strangers who may do further damage to their world. The trio runs back into the building in their attempt to escape being killed by the angry survivors. That's when they bump into another traveler - Polly (Constance Wu, who is in Fresh Off the Boat TV series). Polly seems to know what's going on because presumably she's done this many times before.

Thus the trio get their "guide", who reveals to the trio that the building itself is a dimensional gateway that triggers a jump to infinite parallel earths every 36 hours (or thereabouts). According to Polly, the building was a construct that was built by the owners from the earth called CORE WORLD.  
Eventually, they managed to jump to a world where their dad was there waiting for them. Dad reveals to Ronan and Beatrix that the world they knew to be their own was not but instead were Core Worlders placed there by their dad to protect them. But from whom? Ronan and Beatrix, who always thought their mum was dead, is instead lost in 1 of the many infinite Earths. Their dad wants to get Ronan and Beatrix to join him in his search for their mum.Acting

Altho' it was rather predictable, I really enjoyed it. Sure, the acting wouldn't be on the same level as DiCaprio's but it's competent. None of it was bad enough to distract me from the story.

Overall

Hard-core and real Sci-Fi aficionados HAVE to watch it. It may be a little under-whelming for casual viewers.

Rating: 6.5/10