Time Code

REVIEW
Figgis' experimental film takes some getting used to, but it tells a unique story of the film business and relationships in crises. Time Code uses a four-part split screen with four different scenes going simultaneously showing different aspects of the same story. The actors were supplied a scenario and all the dialogue was improvised. Unlike Mike Leigh and John Cassavetes, there was apparently no script. The sexy Hayak is an aspiring actress. Her lover Tripplehorn thinks she has reasons to be jealous and plants a microphone is her girlfriend's bag, exposing her affair with Skargård, whose wife leaves him for his infidelities. All this craziness is happening at the offices of a film production company. Nearly everyone is snorting coke or drinking and trying to make business decisions during a morning of break-ups, liaisons and earthquakes. Once you get used to the spilt screens, the acting and the tale can be quite compelling. For the record, the finished product is take 15.