Quantum Leap of Faith
Time Travel Meets Theology

The latest entry in the "science fiction is best left to the professionals" category is a Christian film disguising itself (not well) as a time travel story. Sometimes I enjoy Christian movies that mix entertainment with a good message. Although Time Changer boasts a couple of well-known actors, the film itself teeters between boring and bad. As heretical as it may be for me to say this, avoid it at all costs!

Time Changer carries a semi-interesting premise. D. David Morin plays Russell Carlisle, a seminary professor from a Bible college in the year 1890. He is on the verge of publishing a new manuscript, but needs the seminary's staff to endorse it. Norris Anderson (Gavin MacLeod), a colleague, suggests that Carlisle's ideas about teaching morality apart from Jesus Christ will lead the world to ruin. Of course, Anderson knows something Carlisle can't imagine. He's been to the future and has seen it for himself.

When Carlisle won't recant, Anderson sends the professor into the future via a secret time machine. The result is a predictable "fish out of water" story in which the seminary professor is shocked by the sinful way in which the world conducts itself in this day and age. As he interacts with the 21st century, Carlisle preaches the good news to everyone he meets and makes them question the immorality with which they live. While some of it is painfully awful to watch (as when he complains about women's lingerie displays in a store), it makes some interesting points about modern Christians and their willingness to "go with the flow" in a world where bad language fills the entertainment media and religion is taboo in public schools.

Morin's acting is, to be blunt, bad. He doesn't know what to do with his hands and constantly strokes his beard or gestures with very forced mannerisms. His speech is unnecessarily rigid, and he sounds uncomfortable saying his lines. Aside from Morin, the acting is passable. In addition to MacLeod, Hal Linden and Paul Rodriguez make appearances.

Time Changer was written and directed by Rich Christiano, the maker of several other Christian films like Second Glance and End of the Harvest that went straight to video. This is his first "theatrical release." If this is typical of his work, I'd avoid his other films too.

First, it assumes that everyone who lived in 1890 was as pious as Russell Carlisle. Although we do see a neighborhood boy stealing marbles, this appears to be aberrant behavior in an otherwise idyllic setting. Um? Excuse me? What would Professor Carlisle have said about a city like New York at the time? What about serial killer Jack the Ripper? I can't imagine anyone being so naïve.

Second, they make the point early on of saying that nothing can be brought back from the future because "it hasn't been made yet." Yeah, whatever. I'll concede the point. So that taco supreme he ate before coming back vanished from his intestines in a puff of logic. Okay. But why don't you do something USEFUL with the machine like go back to the time of Christ and meet him? Or Moses? Or Noah? Heck, grab Darwin and take him to the Creation. Solve the whole evolution debate. Why are you bouncing 100 years into the future? Seems like a silly way for theologists to use a time machine.

Third, although Carlisle stays in a hotel room with a television, he never thinks to turn it on until the end of the movie. This is a real error in plot development, because ANYONE would be fiddling with all the gadgets in the room before venturing out into the "real" world. In Time After Time (one of the greatest time travel movies ever), H.G. Wells studies the television intensely. It's a natural response, and it would have helped acclimate Carlisle into the future.

Fourth, and this is the big one, there's no pay off. In a good time travel story, we see the past or the future change as a result of the events. In Time Changer, we see Carlisle return to the past and change his book to meet Dr. Anderson's recommendations. But what good will it do? We live in the world he saw. There is no change! Had some other force at work made the original manuscript get published, at least we would understand the connection between Carlisle's book and the downfall of morality. As it is, though, nothing changes (which is odd given the title).

About the only thing that made the movie at all enjoyable for me was to see Linden and MacLeod working again. They are both good actors who deserve better roles than the kind afforded them by B-grade Christian films.

MY RATING: 1 out of 10.

RATED: PG
RUN TIME: 95 min.

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