12:01
1993, US, Directed by Jack Sholder
Colour, Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD, Region 1, Image, Video: Anamorphic 1.85:1, Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
Groundhog Day was a successful film in its era and has since acquired a cult fan base, being a film that managed to dig a little deeper than the average product of mainstream film-making. What some people weren’t aware of at the time was that there was a very similarly themed movie produced in the same year by New Line, the story adopting the identical core concept of someone waking up repeatedly to exactly the same day. Barry Thomas works in the personnel department of technology giant Utrel, persecuted by lady boss Jackson on a daily basis and trapped in a mundane job. The only thing that brightens up his ennui is Lisa Fredericks, one of the scientists he sees mostly from a distance and someone who is unlikely ever to have the time for such a lowlife office worker (damn lowlifes…), while his buddy Howard is constantly offering advice and playing practical jokes at the most inappropriate of times. At the end of an especially disheartening day Barry and Howard are outside the building when they witness Lisa being shot in a drive-by, seemingly targeted specifically but for reasons unknown. Acknowledging that the day is pretty much as bad as it can get Barry and Howard spend the rest of the evening downing alcohol. But before he beds down for the night Barry is trying to fix a broken lamp wire when he receives an electric shock, and the next thing he knows he’s waking up again at 7.35am. Initially going about his business as usual he’s somewhat confused by various uncanny similarities to the previous day but as events unfold Barry eventually realises that an illegal experiment with a particle accelerator at Utrel has resulted in time itself repeatedly bouncing back upon reaching 12:01 (the time of experiment) to the beginning of the day. Somehow the electric shock he received at that very moment has separated him from the loop and it’s clear that he must try to prevent the test taking place in order to restore time to its original state whilst ensuring that Lisa is saved from the assassination that is in some way linked to everything.
The obvious difference between this and the aforementioned Bill Murray film is the fact that this one explains why time is repeating, whereas in Groundhog Day the recurrence was inexplicable, possibly divine. This essentially places each film into a different genre: one in fantasy, the other in science fiction. Both stories introduce a love interest for the protagonist, someone who is virtually unattainable for whatever reason but must be won over regardless, and in each case this forms the primary narrative driving force throughout, though in 12:01 he must also stop the experiment or his efforts will forever be in vain. Jonathon Silverman (as Barry) is no Bill Murray but he’s charismatic and his comic timing tends to be fairly sharp, a likeable man who helps the viewer to identify with the situation and character’s struggle. He successfully injects small doses of humour along the way that ramp up the entertainment factor of the film, this definitely aided by the presence of Jeremy Piven as his joker mate Howard (strangely revealed to be a withering coward later on in the film). A pre-Ed Wood Martin Landau appears as a scientist obsessed with his work while Helen Slater is Barry’s love interest. Slater was just outside of her prime here but still makes an attractive lead lady, plus she’s in possession of reasonable thespian abilities too. The wardrobe department should have taken some medication, however, dressing her in one ugly looking, old-fashioned costume that she would have to wear throughout the entire film thanks to the nature of its theme. There are lots of little things happening repeatedly that Barry gets to interfere with to amusing effect such as Jackson’s threats (seemingly covering up some sort of complex), or Howard’s trick floppy disc that catches Barry out on the first day but never again. The bad guys are stereotypes that could have been lifted from any episode of a TV cop show but they were never going to be anything more than background puppets anyway, plus the conclusion is slightly predictable and cushy. There’s something very appealing about the concept behind this movie and its bigger cinematic brother - essentially the idea itself stems back to the writings of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the fantasy almost arouses a feeling that there are no longer any consequences. We can do as we wish and everything will be restored to normality the following morning, but clearly for the principal characters in both films this novelty wears thin (something better explored in the Harold Ramis flick) and a craving for unpredictability is reinstated by each respective conclusion, this verbally outlined by Barry at the end of 12:01. This is really a low-key film that rises above the average TV excursion.
This has never been widely distributed on home video. Here in England I’ve owned the fullscreen rental tape for years and watched it quite a few times. At last Image have offered us a DVD version and the transfer is easy on the eye, something that stems no doubt from the movie’s celluloid origins (despite being made for TV/video, it has a professional theatrical look throughout). Sound comes in its original stereo format as well as a marginally upgraded 5.1 mix, plus there is surprisingly a commentary from the director. Worth checking out.