Spoilers need to go back in time to go to sleep earlier.

I might have an addiction to time-travel films. It’s not seeing the past or the distant future, it’s the idea of changing your timeline. That’s the core of this film – there are no special effects, no souped-up DeLorean, it’s just a plot device. Granted, doing it in style would be cooler but that’s not what we’re aiming for here. Let’s do this again from the top.

Aporia (2023) is written and directed by Jared Moshé. Sophie (Judy Greer) loses her husband Mal (Edi Gathegi) to a drunk driver. Now she must balance the life of a working single mom trying to raise their daughter Riley (Faithe Herman). She still gets help from Mal’s best friend Jabir (Payman Maadi), a former physicist. After a particularly harsh couple of days, Jabir confesses to Sophie something he’s been working on. It’s a partially built time machine, one that doesn’t allow people to time travel but can alter time – by literally killing a person. The possible use here is to kill the drunk driver before the accident and save Mal’s life. The moral implications are huge.

What follows is the conundrum and ramifications that lie in tampering with the timeline. Being in the same room than the machine exonerates Jabir and Sophie from the effects but once they step out, they’re living in a different history. Sophie can get Mal back, but other events are altered. And as the machine is used again, our time-bending team realizes they know less and less about their own lives as they retain only the memories of the timelive they lived before everything happened. Their lives in each new world become less recognizable, with the people they know also shifting along.

This has a dramatic emotional impact where the trio realize they barely recognize their lives anymore. Their attempts to change their history to their own liking have resulted in becoming complete strangers to their lives. As you watch, you fear that any more attempts to “fix” things for everyone will end up compromising something vital. I have to give props to the filmmakers because when something does change, it’s completely out of left field. I wasn’t really expecting it. The storytelling feels a bit slow paced. The ending might not be everyone’s cup of tea but it’s very fitting.

Highly recommended for dramatic effect. Sci-fi audiences appreciative of the moral implications and emotional toll will find it engaging. Just don’t expect a special effects showcase or an action feature, but a slower paced narrative. Worth a watch for the right audience willing to take its time.

That will do for now.