“Project Almanac” certainly does a good job goading the audience into thinking about the choices we make and, if we could time travel, what ripple effects would result from changing events in our lives. Those choices would not only affect our lives, but the lives of others as well.
Jonny Weston plays David Raskin, a brilliant science student who tries to win a scholarship to MIT. He is accepted, but will have to rely on loans instead of a scholarship. When his mother puts the house up for sale in order to secure David’s education, he is determined to do something special to secure a scholarship and save their home. Rummaging around the basement, he finds a video camera that belonged to his deceased father, also a man of science. When David spots himself as he looks now but at his seventh birthday party, he knows some kind of time travel must have occurred. He solicits the help of his friends to learn how this wild event could have happened.
David figures out how time travel works and takes a journey back in time with his friends. In the past he falls for a girl named Jessie (Sofia Black-D’Elia) who helps out the “time travel” gang. Their lives are greatly improved at first as they go back in time to change bad events in their lives and help themselves win the lottery together. One of them says he would love to go back to the original “Star Wars” premiere and another mentions attending Woodstock! But when David travels back alone to correct a moment with Jessie, the ripple effects bring disastrous results. David’s decision to continue to go back to fix everything further complicates the present. Eventually something will have to give.
This movie is geared toward teen and young adult viewers. Unfortunately, the constant strong language by the teens and sex between a young, unmarried couple—as well as underage drinking—prevents us from awarding the film our Dove “Family-Approved” Seal.