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Emma Caulfield, John Patrick Amedori, Michelle Borth, Desmond Harrington, JoBeth Williams ... see more see more... , Kali Rocha , Muse Watson , John Ingle , Hayden McFarland , Tom Irwin , Mark Harelik , Scott Holroyd , Eric Jungmann

Life doesn't offer many guarantees, but in the alternate universe of writer-director Jac Schaeffer's feature debut, the romantic comedy TiMER, people can get a digital clock implanted on their wrist t... read more read more...hat counts down to the second they meet "the one." It even sounds a little alarm the first time two soul mates look into each other's eyes. The device is not working too well for Oona (Emma Caulfield, who played Anya on Buffy the Vampire Slayer), because her TiMER is blank. That means her soul mate, whoever he is, hasn't yet signed up for the service. So Oona dates guys without TiMERs, and forces them to get the implant if the relationship looks promising. But so far, no dice. Oona's twentysomething half sister, Steph (Michelle Borth), is also unlucky. Her TiMER tells her she won't meet Mr. Right for about 20 more years. While Steph sows her wild oats, resigned not to commit to a relationship, Oona, approaching 30, obsesses over her TiMER. Oona meets a cute younger guy working at the local supermarket, but Mikey (John Patrick Amedori of Gossip Girl) already has a TiMER, and it's set to go off in a few months. "Life is about detours," he tells her, but Oona's not convinced. Meanwhile, Steph meets dashing and TiMER-less Dan (Desmond Harrington, also of Gossip Girl). Dan is interested in Steph, but she knows he's not "the one" for her, so she tries to set him up with Oona. Timer also features JoBeth Williams as Oona's mom. The film had its world premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, and was shown on demand in conjunction with the 2010 festival at the time of its theatrical release. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Flixster Users

65% liked it

2,278 ratings

Critics

58% liked it

12 critics

R, 1 hr. 39 min.

Directed by: Jac Schaeffer

Release Date: May 8, 2010

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DVD Release Date: June 22, 2010

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Flixster Reviews (383)

  • lewiskendell
    April 2, 2012
    lewiskendell
    "What's the point in continuing without a guarantee?"

    A device that tells you the exact amount of time it will be until you meet your soulmate seems to be the perfect answer for heartbreak and uncertainty, but it only causes problems for Oona, who has yet to have her timer begin... read more to count down (because the person she is meant to be with, whoever they may be, has yet to get one). This frustration and loneliness leads her to begin a casual relationship with a young man whose timer countdown is set to end in just a few months. A fairly interesting tale unravels from this setup, that brings up questions of destiny and what's better, the person who is right for us or the person we choose.

    A novel premise and thoughtful script from a modern romantic drama? AND a likable protagonist that's not the same caricature we've seen a thousand times (Emma Caulfield gets total credit for pulling that off)? I genuinely liked TiMER, for those reasons and others.

    This isn't my usual kind of movie, but it's so well made that I enjoyed it. Genre fans will like it even more.
  • itsjustme2004
    July 13, 2011
    itsjustme2004
    Charming. Cute. Enjoyable.
  • FrizzDrop
    July 13, 2011
    FrizzDrop
    Genuinely sweet and irrevocably well plotted, Timer is one of those indie comedies that get you unlike its big budgeted star studded counterparts. The impressive Emma Caulfield (Buffy) takes the lead in a future where timers tell you when you will meet your soul mate. The film is... read more made up of well placed humor, superb performances, even of the supporting actors, and a premise that not only has promise but holds water throughout. There are many twists and turns, completely unforeseeable from the trailer and descriptions of the film. It's not a sci-fi film by any means, substituting any futuristic inquiries for more of a parallel universe or fantasy world, completely believable if you have willing suspense of disbelief. There were laugh out loud moments and heartbreaking ones, technology's stance overwhelming the main character, which is relatable as a thirty-something whose biological clock ticks in synchronicity with the timer on her wrist. With an intriguing subplot and room for our own interpretation of the ending, TiMER only disappoints the crowd with their own conceptions of how this film should end. Many people wanted romantic fluff, but TiMER is beyond its parameters of what a usual indie comedy allows, and therefore is not for the feeble of heart.
  • romy861
    January 2, 2011
    romy861
    Very original idea for a romantic comedy. Enjoyed this. Cannot understand the reviews saying it was boring! I guess if you are bored by romantic comedies in general, then watching this is not going to do a lot for you, but if you tend to like them, this is an excellent one!
    ... read moreThe story here is that they have invented a timer bracelet which can tell you the exact moment you meet "the one" and exactly how long you have to wait in hours and days before that happens. Oona, played nicely by Emma Caulfield, is nearly 30, and hers is yet to register any numbers at all. Either meaning there is no "the one" for her, or he is yet to have the bracelet implanted.
    She becomes involved with the much younger Mikey, (John Patrick Amedori), who is a check out guy at a supermarket and also plays in an unsuccessful rock band. The two of them really look nice together, age difference be damned, could hardly blame her for falling for him. Mikey has the bracelet, but is registering a time four months down the track, meaning Oona is not his destined one. I don't want to spoil this by giving too much away, but this was a really intelligent and interesting little rom com.
    I was a little disappointed by the ending, you will understand what I mean once you have seen it, but it did appear to have a happy ending of sorts and you get the impression all works out okay. Not the way I was hoping it would go, but nevertheless, not a bad outcome.
  • dreamfaeries
    August 29, 2010
    dreamfaeries
    Mixed feelings. I haven't decided if this was good, bad, or what... It was something that helped pass an hour and a half.
  • jjnxn
    July 11, 2010
    jjnxn
    Pleasant if farfetched comedy at least puts a newish spin on the romantic comedy formula until the disappointing finale. Good perfomances from the whole cast.
  • sononothing
    July 6, 2010
    sononothing
    Timer is a small, forgettable film that tries to be cute, but ends up being the definition of boredom. Some time in the future a company will bring to market a device that gets shot into your wrist that will begin counting down to the exact moment you will meet your true love. Li... read moreke the new iPhone and video chat, your future sweetheart must also have said device for the timer to begin. A woman pushing thirty (Emma Caulfield) has built her life around finding her "one" with this timer that sadly hasn't started for her yet.



    This is one of those films that thought it had a great gimmick, but didn't achieve anything real substantial because that great gimmick really sucks. Would humanity really stoop to getting the gratification of knowing when that person would enter their lives? I don't know. Probably. The problem with Timer is that you watch most of the film hoping that true love will overcome a piece of plastic and silicon attached to everyone's wrist, but in the end technology wins out. If there's a metaphor there about us right now I can't see it through the haze. We Shall Overcome has been replaced with Now Serving #47.


    Sprinkled with bad acting, writing, and directing Timer is your typical direct to video mainstay that keeps rental stores shelves full. It's a good date movie that you'll forget about during dinner or a tumble in the back seat of the car. Seriously, I wrote the title down to write this review later and had no clue what movie this was until i went to IMDb to figure out what movie I was writing about. Don't waste a lot of money on this one because you'll be somewhere later, looking for what you spent on Timer wondering "I thought I had three ones in my pocket". This is a masterpiece in forgetability.
  • fb1144932598
    July 1, 2010
    fb1144932598
    A slow start and a disappointing ending contributed to making this film far less enjoyable than this viewer had hoped. The basic premise requires serious effort to suspend disbelief and this viewer is not sure it was worth it. The middle section in which the two sisters, Oona (Em... read morema Caulfield) and Steph (Michelle Borth), begin to live their lives, oblivious to the "Timer", provided the most fun. This hopeless romantic found the science took all of the mystery out of the mating ritual. Yes there are risks involved in opening oneself up to another. Remove the doubt and what is one left with? The question came up, but the film never answered it as to whether the technology works, or only provides itself with a self-fulfilling prophecy. The acting was passable. The filming was okay. It was the story that offered the biggest disappointment.
  • gator681
    May 17, 2010
    gator681
    The TiMER device allows the wielder to see how long it will be until they meet their one true love, for a special price of $79.99, plus a $1.99 per month service charge.

    In "TiMER," Oona(Emma Caulfield, of "Buffy, the Vampire Slayer"), an orthodontist, has a blank device. She... read more drags Brian(Scott Holroyd), who she has been dating for a month, to an outlet to have one installed to see if they are a match but no luck. So, she goes back to the apartment she shares with her stepsister and best friend Steph(Michelle Borth, of the unremembered "the forgotten"), 5,192 days and counting, to watch nature programs. Bored, Oona returns to the supermarket to ask out the younger Mikey(John Patrick Amedori), 129 days and counting. Regardless, everybody is excited at their teenage brother Jesse(Hayden McFarland) to have his TiMER installed. It turns out he only has three days to wait.

    "TiMER" is a charming, intelligent and thought-provoking romantic comedy that uses a bit of science fiction(This is the present, not the near future. And it is a nice touch to differentiate between Oona's and the newer model.) to ironically ground its story in emotional realism as it satirizes the very notion of biological clocks.(Time pieces are visible throughout.) At the same time, the concept of one true love is explored. Personally, I would not want to know as I would much rather know when the next bus is going to show up. And the movie, with relatively modest means, explores how such a device would change everybody's lives and behavior, as perhaps spontaneity and romance would suffer. On the one hand, some might be depressed at the amount of time it takes while others might be relieved that there is somebody special out there for them. What would be interesting to see is that it might be somebody that they would not have otherwise given a second look, resulting in many more interracial relationships. However, there is always the option of being single and there is nothing wrong with this.
  • crazydannielle16
    March 13, 2011
    crazydannielle16
    This was an incredibly imaginative comedic fantasy, about a woman named Oona who is nearly 30 and hasn't yet found her true love. It's the future... and almost everyone has been implanted with a timer that ticks down to the exact moment that you meet your soul mate. Oona's timer ... read moreis blank because her soul mate was never implanted with one. It's a philosophical movie that explores the timeless questions of old: Are there soul mates? Is there JUST ONE person for someone? What about death and remarriage? Should you wait and wait for "the one" even if it means waiting for a long time or fool around having one night stands along the way? Can two people make it work who aren't "soul mates" but who are "in love?" Oona goes through a journey of discovering whether or not she wants to know when she'll meet her soul mate or whether it should be a mystery. Along the way she meets a man who steals her heart. He doesn't have a timer. How will she know if they're meant to be? Meanwhile, her sister's timer says she has over five thousand days left and by then she'll be 43. She's tired of waiting and gets her timer removed, leaving love up to fate and not science. Oona's brother will meet his soul mate at the ripe age of 15 in just 3 days. Oona visits her father for answers of why her parents are no longer together. This is an extremely funny, well-written, superbly acted thinking movie. I totally called the ending from the beginning of the movie but my husband was shocked. (It usually goes the other way around.) All in all, a great movie if you don't mind lots of F-bombs. (Which I did think the movie could have done without.)

    SPOILER:
    This is what someone wrote about the end:
    "The problem with Timer is that you watch most of the film hoping that true love will overcome a piece of plastic and silicon attached to everyone's wrist, but in the end technology wins out. If there's a metaphor there about us right now I can't see it through the haze. We Shall Overcome has been replaced with Now Serving #47."

    My comment to this person was: I don't think the ending was saying that at all. I think the reason it was left open-ended (which is something I usually hate in movies) was to help the viewer make up his own mind of whether he believes love is fate or a choice. Maybe Oona can still make it work with Mikey or maybe she'll choose Dan, the man she was meant to be with. I also think it was saying that she COULD HAVE HAD Mikey if she would have trusted her own love for him and committed her life to him, but she chose to let a device chose for her, therefore ruining what could have been a beautiful relationship built on commitment rather than being with a person because that's what a piece of technology told her to do. I think it's a beautiful metaphor that can be applied perhaps in today's society and compared to matchmaking technology such as eHarmony making matches for you vs. finding someone in real life.

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Critic Reviews

Neil Genzlinger
May 14, 2010
Neil Genzlinger, New York Times

Some of Ms. Schaeffer's plot twists are easy to guess, but everyone's enjoyable to watch.

V.A. Musetto
May 14, 2010
V.A. Musetto, New York Post

TiMER never rises above the level of a sitcom. All that's missing is the laugh track. Full Review

Gary Goldstein
April 29, 2010
Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times

Make time for this one. Full Review

Aaron Hillis
April 29, 2010
Aaron Hillis, Village Voice

A romcom is a romcom, however, and at least this one's more charming than most of Jennifer Aniston's career. Full Review

Amber Wilkinson
July 6, 2010
Amber Wilkinson, Eye for Film

Jac Shaeffer plays around with the ideas of time and relationships like a malevolent matchmaker, finding plenty of laugh-out loud laughs in the process. Full Review

Geoff Berkshire
July 6, 2010
Geoff Berkshire, Metromix.com

For all its low budget shortcomings, TiMER has a scruffy charm you just can't buy. Full Review

Philip Martin
July 3, 2010
Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Despite its far-fetched premise Jac Schaeffer's debut feature has a surfeit of low-budget, high-concept indie charm and an adorable lead in Emma Caulfield Full Review

Prairie Miller
May 21, 2010
Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze

While sex and science fiction make for strange bedfellows, TiMER takes up this peculiar but intriguing hybrid challenge, perfecting product predictability in romance in a consumer society already fixa... Full Review

Stephen Garrett
May 12, 2010
Stephen Garrett, Time Out New York

The lukewarm female talk occasionally grates and the men are portrayed as mind-numbingly simplistic, but on the whole this cyber-Cupid exercise is surprisingly affecting. Full Review

Nick Schager
May 11, 2010
Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

TiMER is not only predicated on a ridiculous premise, but one with a surprisingly muddled message. Full Review

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TiMER Trivia

  • this is an old timer, but, what movie has vampiers, that suck and kill people in the middle of the night?  Answer »
  • In Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, how many times did Dumbledore tell Hermione to turn the timer turner?  Answer »
  • In what movie does an old timer compete in a fight to prove he still has what it takes?  Answer »
  • In the distant future, the world is overpopulated and laws are put into effect that limit the span of each individual's life. Agents are in place to carry out executions of those citezens whose "life timer" sensors are activated. For which '70s movie is this the plot?  Answer »
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