12:01
(1993)
(SPOILERS) 12:01,
a Fox Network TV movie, was first shown the same year as Groundhog Day, that much feted classic of the one-day-repeated micro-genre
that also includes the recent Edge of
Tomorrow/Live. Die. Repeat., The X-Files’ Monday and Source Code.
It had previously been made as a short three years earlier, with Kurtwood
Smith. Indeed, Richard Lupoff, Jonathan
Heap and Philip Morton, the writers, sued the Groundhog Day people, claiming plagiarism. 12:01 is a serviceable little movie, engagingly told, but it’s easy
to see why it hasn’t entered into the annals like its more illustrious
companions.
Indeed, even The
X-Files’ Monday (from the
recharged sixth season), is superior, telling its story effectively and
punchily in half the time. Like Edge of
Tomorrow and Source Code, 12:01 attempts an explanation behind its
conceit, rather than it all just being magic to cause a shift in its wayward
protagonist’s outlook. This forms the underpinning of events and the murder
narrative, but like Groundhog Day it’s
driven by a love story.
Barry (Jonathan Silverman, a more affable Judd Nelson) is a
bored and put-upon personnel department employee of a company conducting
experiments into particle physics. He moons from afar over scientist Lisa
(Helen Slater) and ritually gets drunk with buddy and practical joker Howard
(Jeremy Piven, basically setting out the store for his entire career). Lisa is
shot dead, and that night Barry suffers an electric shock from a lightning
strike at the same time (unbeknownst to anyone else, since the device is
supposed to have been shut down) that a faster than light particle experiment
is being conducted.
Barry awakes the next morning to find himself reliving
his previous day. As you can probably guess, his main endeavours, once he gets the
measure of his predicament, is to woo/save the life of Lisa, which inevitably
leads to working out just who is responsible for her (attempted) murder and for
continuing the (banned) experiment. Along the way there are a series of quirky
little signatures (the collapsing office chair is effectively the same as Ned
Ryerson and the puddle in Groundhog Day)
and amusement resulting from learnt behaviours and observations of others (in
particular, Barry’s reactions to his overbearing boss Robin Bartlett have something
of Office Space’s relishable contempt
for to all things oppressively officious).
Silverman’s solid, Slater’s incredibly likeable, Piven’s
Piven, and Martin Landau as head of the project Dr Moxley is as reliable as
you’d expect. There’s also a decent Danny Trejo cameo.
12:01 isn’t quite
able to grasp the same giddy mettle as some of its stable mates, however. Jack
Sholder (Freddy’s Revenge, cult
classic The Hidden) does an effective
and pacey job, but the final act reduces to efficient-but-bland straight
thriller antics. There’s also only one instance where the go-for-it side of
repetition is fully embraced for humorous effect; Barry awakes, galvanised,
heads out to work, only to be hit head on by a car, killed, and awakes again;
that kind of shorthand gag could have been used to knock the movie out of the
park (as both Groundhog Day and Edge of Tomorrow exploited). As it is,
Barry is only caught in his loop for about four days, by the looks of things.
The moral of the piece is much more effective, if still
glib, than the meal The Age of Adaline
makes, only coming from a different angle; “That’s
why life is so precious. Because time passes”. Worth a look then, if a
lesser entry in the repeated day cycle, and 12:01 can currently be seen on YouTube.
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