Quickly, what was the first work of fiction to feature time travel? If you said The Time Machine by H.G Wells, you're way off. Indeed, TTM isn't even the first time travel story written by Wells himself
(the Chronic Argonauts, written in 1888, predates it by seven years). The first story to use a time machine was El Anacronópete, written in 1881 by Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau. Unfortunately, there is no English language version in print, so I've no idea if it's any good (there is an amateur, but admirable, translation in progress at this link http://anacronopete.wordpress.com/) Even before that, you could argue A Christmas Carol might count as the first popular use of time travel, what with Scrouge being taken into the past and future at various points. There are even older examples of time travel in fiction, but it all gets a bit murky and debatable the further back you go. Anyway, you're probably wondering what this has to do with todays review, so I'll cut to the chase. Since the first time a member of the human race wondered what it would be like to step into the future or the past, the idea of time travel has provided inspiration for writers in all forms of media. There are literally thousands of books, TV shows, films, video games, comic books, and Cravendale milk adverts all devoted to the concept of time travel. With this in mind, you can understand how difficult it is to come up with an original and entertaining time travel movie these days. Fetching Cody is that movie.
After Cody winds up in a coma after a heroin overdose, small time drug dealer and addict Art starts to rethink the influence he has had on his girlfriend's life. So, when his homeless friend Harvey stumbles across a time travelling chair, Art seizes the opportunity to try and change Cody's life for the better. Here's where I feel the movie gets special. When you love someone, you want to know everything about them. The good, the bad, the ugly, it doesn't matter. To find out about the intimate moments of someone's life is a special thing. If you could see these moments unfold first hand, as Art does, it would be truly amazing. The more Art sees of Cody's life, the more he wants to fix it. Thanks to Jay Baruchel, Art is an endearing character, and he carries the plot along nicely. The acting in the movie is very natural, and even the 'wacky' characters feel real. Sarah Lind is a sweet Cody, and her and Baruchel have good chemistry on screen. David Ray directs the film very smartly, and shows what can be done with a relatively small budget. Unfortunately, he hasn't been in the directors chair since then (2005), and seems to be stuck writing writing movies for the SyFy channel with titles like 'Ice Quake' and 'Mega Cyclone'. Its probably a steady living, but I hope one day he returns to his roots, because Fetching Cody is a great film.
Final Verdict;
An excellent piece of work, and since the whole film can be found on YouTube you have no excuse not to watch it.
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