PREDESTINATION (2015) *** ½

Ethan Hawke works for a shadowy time traveling agency in 1970.  He poses as a bartender who hears a long, unlikely, but heartfelt story from an unassuming stranger who enters the bar.  Because of Hawke’s job description, he finds himself in a position to help the customer and offers them an opportunity to go back in time and fix their past.

To divulge any more would do the viewer a great disservice.  Because of that, I’m going to try to keep this review as short and spoiler-free as possible.  Do yourself a favor and stop reading this review and go check it out.

Based on a Robert A. Heinlein story, Predestination, from The Spierig (Undead) Brothers is a twisty, engaging, and fun thriller that starts small and personal before getting increasingly bonkers as it goes along.  It all hinges on a wild reveal that in lesser hands could’ve wound up being a total disaster.  However, the brothers handle the various time-hopping shenanigans and potential paradoxes with panache.

While the movie often threatens to go off the rails, the excellent performances help to keep it grounded.  Ethan Hawke (who also starred in the Spierigs' Daybreakers) and Sarah Snook are simply terrific together.  At first, it almost feels like their scenes in the bar came out of a two-character play, but the more they reveal to each other, the more moving and poignant it becomes.  These scenes are so good that they pretty much blow the time-traveling sections of the film (which sometimes resembles a slightly classier version of Timecop) out of the water.  One could argue that the ending is a bit pat, but then again, I guess it had to be in order to keep all the various paradoxes and timelines in check.

In short, this is a total blast from start to finish.  The final twist is particularly jaw-dropping.  By the time it’s over, you’ll probably wish you could go back in time and see it again for the first time.