mrockman-1 Review of 12:01 PM

12:01 PM (1990)

Fascinating Take on What It Would Be Like to Repeat the Same Hour

[10/10 · 24 January 2006]

This short picture stars Kurtwood Smith as Myron Castleman, a drone in an engineering firm, who is so insignificant that even the office manager treats him like dirt. At the start of each repeated hour, Castleman finds himself standing on an island in the middle of a heavily traveled city street. He's carrying a briefcase. Apparently, he's out to lunch. A series of set pieces ensue: a man holds a wet bag of groceries that weakens and dumps its load, a man tells a lame joke while waiting for his "lunch" order at a hot dog stand in a park, a man sitting on a bench gets a fecal gift from a bird, and a pleasant woman sitting on another bench strikes up an acquaintanceship. There is an impressive audio and visual effect that signifies the moment that the hour is about to repeat. As in "Groundhog Day," it is entertaining to watch Castleman play with the unusual situation by putting himself in grave danger, knowing full well that any damage done will be erased when the hour repeats. The rude physicist at the Tempus Institute finally believes Myron Castleman because Myron describes the transition event, that only he can experience, which exactly corresponds to the physicist's predictions. Castleman is in quite a fix. Only he is able to perceive that time is repeating like a stuck record.