Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

I struggled through this bit of Canadiana and truthfully got more from reading the synopsis afterwards than the movie itself. I think the biggest problem with this Indie drama is that nothing is explained; when is this taking place? Where is this remote location? What exactly is a timekeeper? What railroad are they building? All these things would have helped me get into this movie, as it was my favorite scene involved the men 'dump' diving with some bears and the Johnny Cash song played (Long Time) during one of the scenes -not a good sign. And what the hell was Roy Dupuis doing here, his character (and fake beard) were a mess. 02.28.14 FYI (and for my information) Set in 1964, this follows Martin Bishop (Craig Olejnik), a highly moral young man, as he attempts to work alongside a railway construction crew in the Northwest Territories.

My two fellow reviewers, we are certainly concerned to give due recognition to all things "up north." And we desire beyond a doubt to recognize films put together in places we know by people like ourselves. To say The Timekeeper(2009) may not win Genie is going too far! Both the inventor of this film's drunken bum dialogue - Samuel Beckett - and his protégé in the theatre who invented the post-dialogue world of aimless thugs - Harold Pinter - they both won the NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE. So, here we are, take a look at your lifetime expectations - "As my father used to say, a man can lose everything, and then have nothing." We are living in Harold Pinter's universe. Some of it's features are 1) garbled conversation as it would sound tape-recorded from real life, 2) an uninterrupted feeling of menace that 3) explodes sometimes into pointless violence. This brings us to an explanation of why my two fellow reviewers thought The Timekeeper an unfamiliar movie to most people. There's no sex in it. There aren't even ANY WOMEN.

Any one who has moved to the north at a young and innocent age and worked for a boss who's motives are not always pure will understand this movie. People who have not lived here may find it a stretch, but anyone who has met an elder who doesn't speak any English, anyone who has "dump-ster dived" because they couldn't afford groceries, anyone who has felt at times trapped by the remoteness of this land, will understand this movie. Unfortunately, not enough care is taken explaining the culture, the remote location, or the characters in the movie and so unless you are privy to the inside joke, you may very well miss a good story.

Take a sadistic villain with the psychological depth of a cartoon character. Add a goody-two-shoe hero, who comes to right the wrongs in this world (and who never in 52 days of fleeing through the wilds or working in a chain gang never, ever needs a shave or runs out of hair gel). To this simplistic recipe, add a few supporting roles and extras who lack any interest or dialogue or intelligence (I mean, wouldn't you just catch fish or eat berries rather than scrounge scraps out of discardedtins in the garbage heap?). In their flight from the camp from hell,one character leaves (but you guessed it, he'll come crawling out of the woods just when he's needed) while another, the stereotyped strong, silent Indian who has no dialogue other than grunting in the direction of the river bank, simply disappears, with none of the other characters seeming to notice or care. (I suspect that his native wisdom told him he'd be better off in some other movie that actually had a script.)With every line of trite text, the sparse audience I saw this film with emitted groans, then nervous giggles, then was left in stunned silence at the dreadfulness of it all. I think about half a dozen of us actually managed to hang on until the final credits. Everybody else did what the exploited laborers in the film didn't have the good sense to do: they simply walked out and did something better with their time.