#diverge

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I pull a photograph of you from an album and I take in the shape of your smile, the brightness in your eyes. Looking at your face now, I realize that I had no idea our paths would diverge like tree branches. Though we were both made from the Tree of Life, our branches grew in different directions. It took me a while to realize this. I watched as we grew together, then grew…

Diverge will make you wish you had a time machine so you can either warn yourself not to watch it or travel into the future to when the film is over, which might be something like 3 hours? Oh, wait. it only clocks in at 85 minutes. It only FEELS like it lasts half a day because the film is so boring.

In a post-apocalyptic world, a strange disease has wiped out most of humanity. Chris Towne (Ivan Sandomire) is sent back in time by a scientist (Jamie Jackson as Dimitri Tarkov) to save his wife and in the process, all of humankind.

Written, directed and edited by James Morrison (in his directorial debut), the film sort of plays out like a bargain-bin 12 Monkeys. We begin with Chris and his wife Anna (Erin Cunningham) wandering through a seemingly endless salt flat. The implication is that the earth has dried up… but wait. A biological disease that kills people (and cows) caused the apocalypse, not some heat wave. What’s going on? Anyway, soon after, Anna dies and Chris is sent back in time against his will. Of all the people who might’ve survived the end of the world, one is the inventor of a time machine and the other is the person who unwillingly fumbled the cure that could’ve prevented this whole thing from happening? What are the odds? I know, I know. The plot’s got to happen somehow but we’re talking the first fifteen minutes of the film and already, things are looking wobbly. Still, I won't dock points for that.

Plot holes and contrivances are not the film’s downfall. The biggest sin Diverge commits is the biggest sin any movie can commit: it’s boring. Chris is not an interesting protagonist. All he does is meekly wander around, trying his best to accomplish his mission without ever stressing out or even running. The most enthusiasm he shows is when he catches a glimpse of his wife. The past version of the character is similarly dull. As for the film’s villain, he's wholly unnecessary and cut from the same cloth as Umbrella Corp. but way less fun. It isn’t uncommon for science-fiction stories to be a little light on the character development; they’re often about the plot rather than the characters. The thing is that Diverge has such a basic plot there’s just nothing for you to latch onto. Yes, Chris is going back in time to save the world. We’ve seen that before. So. Many. Times. It’s not enough but this film acts as if it is.

You’ll be so desperate for some substance you’ll find yourself rewriting the movie. What if future Chris wanted to kill and replace his younger version because now, he’s matured and become a better person? If that sounds wild, it wouldn’t be unprecedented in this film. At one point, Dimitri travels back in time so he can kill his past self and take his place. “Woah! Spoiler alert!” you might say but I disagree because this event doesn’t affect Chris or the plot in any way whatsoever.

Although I struggled to stay awake during Diverge (a terrible title by the way), I won’t call it wholly devoid of merit. As a first film, it’s well-shot and makes pretty good use of its (surely) minuscule budget. Sometimes, a bad movie proves the people in charge are complete hacks. Though Diverge is unimaginative, unengaging and unmemorable, this is not one of those cases. (July 29, 2022)