While it takes longer than necessary to get going, Synchronic manages to have an interesting and character-focused take on time travel. There are certainly a couple of “huh?” developments in relation to the time travel aspect, but that’s *always* the case with these kinds of stories and as long as the other elements land I can forgive iffy sci-fi reasoning. 

My biggest gripe (aside from a spoilerish bit which I’ll get to later) is probably the pacing of the first half but, thankfully, most of Synchronic is a successful venture as far as direction, score, screenplay, cinematography, and performances go. Also, the lived-in and down to Earth middle class New Orleans setting is appreciated instead of the rather standard Mardis Gras/French Quarter/huge plantation homes/destitute swamp lands often on display whenever a film takes place in Louisiana.

Steve (Anthony Mackie) and Dennis (Jamie Dornan) are two Louisiana paramedics and long-time best buds who lead different lives. Steve’s a perennial bachelor with some personal issues he keeps to himself while Dennis freely shares his life’s frustrations & joys in regards to his wife of many years (Katie Aselton), teenage daughter (Ally Ioannides), and one year old infant. One night Steve and Dennis are called to the aftermath of what appears to be a bad trip from a new designer drug that has some bizarre, unexplainable effects and before they know it their lives are upended with hurdles and complications neither of which is sure how to deal with. Is their friendship strong enough to weather the strange and otherworldly circumstances they’ve stumbled on? Only time will tell…

Synchronic starts off well enough as it slowly introduces the viewer to these characters with Mackie and Dornan effectively selling their long-time friendship and life circumstances, but it does take kind of a while to get to the meat of the film. Character setups and preliminary plot mechanics are obvious necessities so the viewer understands the who/what/where/when, however at a certain point enough is enough and get to the time travel already.

Once Synchronic embraces the sci-fi/mystery angle the proceedings pick up nicely with the measured direction & easy on the eyes cinematography presenting some good trial and error problem solving in regards to the situations characters find themselves trying to navigate. This is definitely not a silly Back to the Future take on the topic as they repeatedly touch on just how unpleasant (to put it mildly) the past of human history can be, however don’t expect an entirely somber time at the movies as there are definitely a couple good chuckles sprinkled throughout via character interplay and situational humor. That spoilerish bit I mentioned is the next paragraph, FYI, so ignore or read on!

So, at one point in the time travel testing phase one of the characters wants to see if they can bring others with them on time journeys and their first impulse is to use their dog as a guinea pig–guess how that goes? Anyway, my issue is why the hell would you use your own dog to test this out? Just go to a pet store and buy an actual guinea pig or anything that isn’t your own beloved pet to see what’ll happen–it’s certainly not difficult or expensive and I can’t imagine this wouldn’t cross someone’s mind. Synchronic instead has the dog fall victim to a failed experiment to tug on the viewer’s heart strings, no doubt, and it felt a little hollow and manufactured to me.

Overall, if you’re a fan of nicely crafted and performed time travel tales I think Synchronic has more pros than cons. Give it a go!

7 out of 10 Time Paramedics