Time Review Movie
Time Review
Time is a crusade-against-the-legal-system documentary with a difference. Instead of following the efforts to free a victim from jail for the wrong they didn't do The film of Garrett Bradley chronicles Fox Rich's long-running struggle to have husband Rob released from prison after he was convicted of attempting to take over a bank and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. But what Bradley as an independent filmmaker as well as the second-unit director of Ava DuVernay, persuasively posits is that, far from being a factor in making America an improved, safer environment, it is detrimental to the country on families, creating division, destabilizing communities, and perpetuating the systemic racism that lies at the core of our US law enforcement system. No matter what your side of the debate, Time offers poignant, humane food for the mind.
In classic black and white Bradley incorporates dreamy video diary footage from the past twenty years of watching the Rich children growing in a world without a father. It also includes modern images of Fox trying to get the release of her husband. We can see her reaching out women who are in the same situation by calling the judge's offices each day for an update on her appeal for her husband's release. She also in an emotional moment, standing on the steps of her church asking to be forgiven for her crime (the film blurs the details but she did serve three-and-a-half years in prison for the robbery following entering into a plea deal).
The essence of time is the resilience of love over time.
In addition to the fact that it documents the activities of a dedicated militant, Time also works as an image of a caring wife (after being high school lovebirds, the pressure of Fox having to visit her husband two times every month is a sigh of relief) and a strong single mother of the child (there is something inspiring when you watch your children grow from children horsing around in a pool to mature young men at college and working).
The film switches between a documentary style and a more impressionistic outlook It lacks the urgency of a narrative. Two things are notable: Bradley's non-judgmental and probing approach to her subject matter , and the stoicism of Rich in waiting to hear the outcome of the most recent hearing. In many ways, this is the essence of what Time is about in the end it's about the endurance of long-lasting love.
