Call it destiny, call it fate, call it whatever you want,
the question of whether or not we as humans should know what our future has in
store for us has been a hotly debated topic since there have been topics to be
hotly debated. This subject is at the center of Joe McLane’s new micro-budget
Life Tracker.
Filmed in faux-documentary style that I initially worried
would get annoying fast—fortunately enough it doesn’t—Life
Tracker seeks to examine the consequences of knowing your own fate,
including who you’ll marry, how many children you’ll have, and the exact day of
your death. When Life Tracker Ltd. first announces that they can map out your
entire future based on a single drop of your blood and a strand of your DNA,
the story is a mere blip on the 24-hour news cycle. Aspiring documentarian
Dillon (Barry Finnegan) takes note, and sets out examine their outlandish
claims.
Here’s the problem, Dillon is half-assed, insecure, and has
zero in the way of follow through. Lucky for him he has the help of his much
more successful filmmaking friend, Scott (Matt Dallas, Kyle
XY), and his girlfriend, Bell (Rebecca Marshall, Saw
3D), who Dillon is not-so-secretly in love with.
After a slow start that spends a little too much time
talking to random people—the acting is generally strong, except for during
Dillon’s man-on-the-street interviews—Life Tracker finds a
groove examining both the individual and collective psychological impacts of
knowing your future. As a part of the process for their film, Dillon, Scott,
and Bell all have their prints read. At the same time their results create
interpersonal tension among the trio of friends, LTL creates havoc on a worldwide
scale—as the documentary comes together, Life Tracker explodes on the scene.
Seemingly everyone has their DNA read, but not everyone is prepared to deal
with what they learn.
McLean balances these two threads with a delicate touch,
telling not just the story of a group of friends, but lending a global weight
to the proceedings. It allows the film to touch on the psychological impact of
this knowledge on both the collective and individual psyche. What does knowing
your fate do to you? Are these self-fulfilling prophecies? When you learn that
you’re slated to die on a specific date, do you start looking for signs
everywhere? Do you change how you live your life based on what you know? Is
this too much for us to know? Are these predictions set in stone? Can you
change your future? These questions and so many more are at the heart of the
film, and, wisely, it doesn’t look to provide definitive answers. Instead it
poses the questions—to you and the characters—provides a few distinct sample
sets, and lets you come to your own conclusions.
One of the great successes of Life
Tracker is the use of small, unique details to really sell the world.
The company certifies “readers” to interpret the results of your test, but
there is a scale. There are readers who score highly on their tests, but there
are also those who don’t, and depending on what you’re willing to spend, you
may or may not be getting accurate results. Dillon, Scott, and Bell can only
pony up for a 64% reader, so what does that mean? Details like this allow you
to accept this world, but also create a sense of unreality. Maybe this is
science, but maybe this a cash grab or publicity stunt. It’s enough to unnerve
you, to make you wary, but not concrete enough to convince everyone. There is a
lot of grey area.
Though it does feel a little long, Life Tracker
is definitely a movie to check out. Sci-fi with a unique approach, horror in a
nontraditional genre sense, this has a cool hook, and doesn’t shy away from big
moral questions, ideas of fate and destiny, as well examining more personal
notions of friendship and relationships.
Life Tracker is now available via a
variety of streaming services. Click HERE for a list. It’s it certainly worth
the effort to find.
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