Omni Loop turns out not to be the movie its premise suggests. Depending on your expectations, that’ll be either a pleasant surprise or a depressing disappointment.
On one hand, it’s an oddball science-fiction film in which its main character, quantum physics author Zoya Lowe (Mary-Louise Parker), is diagnosed with a black hole growing in her chest. No explanation is offered, though it’s suggested that this phenomenon occurs from time to time like a rare form of cancer. She’s given a week to live before the black hole completely consumes her, during which time her loving family plans to make her as comfortable and happy as possible.
However, Zoya is stuck in a time loop - triggered by mysterious prescription pills she found as a 12 year old - so she keeps reliving that same final week over and over. Feeling personally and professionally incomplete, Zoya is determined to figure out how these pills work to order to alter her past, eventually enlisting the help of a young researcher, Paula (Ayo Edebiri), with access to a college campus lab…as well as a “nanoscopic man,” who’s kept in a box and continually shrinking.
On the other hand, Omni Loop is a somber character study of Zoya herself. With every time jump, it’s revealed that her life has not turned out how she (and others) once expected. Through flashbacks and encounters with people who impacted her life, such as Professor Duselberg (Harris Yulin), her invalid mother and ex-colleague/old flame Mark, she views her past as a series of missed opportunities and failing to achieve her potential. Consumed by revisiting (and maybe fixing) her past, Zoya neglects the present, namely husband Donald (Carlos Jacott) and daughter Jayne (Hannah Pearl Utt).
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| Paula adds Zoya to her shit list. |
These themes eventually dominate the film, and while affecting, they cause a big shift in the overall tone. Not that Omni Loop was ever a barrel of laughs to begin with, but it grows more dispiriting (if not meandering) as the story progresses, the sci-fi elements taking a backseat to a gloomy sense of inevitability, to the point where the audience is likely to know the outcome before it actually plays out.
Still, Omni Loop is a thought provoking experience, even if some viewers may not necessarily appreciate the thoughts it provokes. A small film with weighty themes, what it lacks in mind-bending thrills is compensated by a relatable protagonist and a haunting denouement. But viewers expecting another low budget brain scrambler like Primer or Coherence should take a pass.
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