Andy's Anachronisms -- Fetching Cody (2005)

Time Travel Movie Review

Fetching Cody (2005)
How Far Would You Go For Love?

Directed by David Ray

The Basic Plot

Art and Cody are young twenty-something kids struggling to survive on Vancouver’s mean streets. When Cody (Sarah Lind) falls into a coma from an apparent drug overdose, a distraught Art (Jay Baruchel) turns to his one friend on the street for help, Harvey (Jim Byrnes) the junkman. Harvey offers him shelter and something else – a time machine.

Harvey claims that the battered recliner, festooned with Christmas lights, that he found in a dumpster is the real deal. After a quick experiment with the chair Art embarks on a journey into Cody’s past in an attempt to find out where her life went wrong and set it right.

The Analysis

Fetching Cody, a first feature film from director David Ray, manages to walk a fine line. On the one hand it shows the gritty reality of Vancouver’s east side while managing to remain upbeat by milking enough laughs from Art’s slacker life style.

Fetching Cody takes the time to explore the "what if?" scenario of trying to change the past. The extremes that Art is willing to go to undo the damage done to Cody is at times hilarious and touching. As the tagline of the movie says - How Far Would You Go For Love?

Director David Ray at the QA of the screening at the 2005 Toronto Internation Film Festival stated the film was six years in the making and the script saw somewhere around twenty revisions. As inventive as the script is there still feels like there are a few too many loose plot threads. Whether they were never tied up or were left on the cutting room floor is anyone's guess. For example, a romantic involvement between Cody’s brother and her boyfriend Helmut is alluded to but is abandoned as soon as it is set up. While not crucial to the plot it feels as if it could play a pivotal turning point in the unraveling of Cody’s past. Similarly, the disappearance of a secondary character comes at a pivotal point in the story and it seems as if it may be a redeeming moment for Art, but it is never dealt with fully.

What the film lacks in a tight plot and on screen chemistry between Baruchel and Lind, it makes up for in laughs and bizarre plot twists.

I must be getting old when young kids like Jay Baruchel (Undeclared, Just Legal) and Elisha Cuthbert (The Girl Next Door, 24) graduate from ‘playing’ fresh faced teens on the TV series “Popular Mechanics for Kids” to seedier adult roles.

The early morning screening I saw was attended by a bus load of seniors that seemed to be on some film festival tour package. Given the tone of the film and content I thought for sure a mass exodus would ensue. I was pleasantly surprised that most of the geriatric crowd stuck around to applaud and praise the film when the lights came up. Who would have guessed?

Other than screenings at festivals, no release date has been set.

R E L A T E D L I N K S:

The Official Fetching Cody Website
The official Fetching Cody movie site from Cheap and Dirty Film Productions contains trailer, synopsis, cast bios, and press gallery with stills from the movie including the poster.

http://www.cheapanddirty.ca/index_cody.php

Internet Movie Database
This is the Internet Movie Database entry for Fetching Cody includes cast list, filming info, release information.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0475271/

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