Review: 'The Adam Project' a Saccharine Time-Travel Comedy

Sci-fi often delineates strict rules for time travel – not that films always obey their own parameters. As tantalizing as it is to ask what if your younger self knew the wisdom you now possess, one of the biggest principles remains: If you go back in time, you can't run into your past self without risking a temporal paradox. "The Adam Project" hinges on breaking that rule.

The Shawn Levy-directed film, written by Jonathan Tropper, T.S. Nowlin, Jennifer Flackett, and Mark Levin, re-teams Levy with star Ryan Reynolds, the two having previously worked together on the delightfully clever and heartwarming "Free Guy."

In 2050, time-traveling pilot Adam (Reynolds) disobeys orders and accidentally escapes to the year 2022 to search for his missing wife, Laura (Zoe Saldaña), who is also a time-traveling pilot. After an injury, he hides out at his childhood home and runs into his 12-year-old self (Walker Scobell).

Quick-witted, sarcastic young Adam lives with his mom, Ellie (Jennifer Garner); his dad, Louis (Mark Ruffalo) died a year earlier. A nerdy, video-game-playing kid bullied by peers, Adam's rule-breaking, muscled older self entrances him. But young Adam irks older Adam. Young Adam asks if their meeting (called "parallel contact") will cause problems; it's a legitimate concern conjuring similar scenarios in time-travel films such as "Back to the Future," "Looper," and "12 Monkeys." Older Adam tells Younger Adam he watches too many movies.

Since his plane won't fly unless he's fully healed, Older Adam devises a workaround and enlists Younger Adam to come with him, as the plane only works with his (their) DNA. Adam must stay ahead of his pursuers: Villainous Maya (Catherine Keener), altering time for her own nefarious benefits, and her henchmen. Laura (who got stranded in the past) arrives and fights alongside Older Adam (using a weapon suspiciously akin to a light saber, which young Adam points out).

After briefly reuniting with Laura, the two Adams travel back to 2018 and find their dad, a physics professor and inventor of time travel (electric pulses enabling the use of wormholes) to try and save the world.

Rather than focusing on or adhering to stringent rules, "The Adam Project" leverages the time-travel premise to engage themes of grief and confronting a painful past.

The verbose, sarcastic protagonist of course fits well within Ryan Reynolds's wheelhouse. Zoe Saldaña and he share a familiar chemistry. The majority of the film relies on the banter and rapport of the two Adams. Unfortunately, Walker Scobell gives an obnoxious performance. While his character is supposed to be initially grating, his exaggerated overacting distracts –�although he does improve as the film progresses. On a side note, it's nice to see a film reunion between Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo, last together in "13 Going on 30."

Despite the high stakes (death, a potential "cataclysmic collapse" of the timeline), "The Adam Project" rarely feels intense for the characters, due to its flippant tone, trite humor, and weak writing. A lack of world-building also hinders this disjointed film.

However, tender moments exist, especially in conversations around grief. There's romance; Laura tells Adam that even if time travel is eradicated, she knows they'll find each other again. There are also father-son moments, including a scene out of "Field of Dreams." While far from the deepest emotional excavations, something at the film's core – people who love each other pulled apart then briefly reunited before torn asunder again – moved me.

While the title "The Adam Project" refers to the time-travel experiment, it also evokes how this adventure transforms Adam emotionally, spurring him to be kinder and less angry. An unremarkable sci-fi film led by a treacly, yet earnest, heart, it remains an innocuous distraction.

"The Adam Project" releases on Netflix on Friday, March 11, 2022.