Over the years there have been a lot of time travel films. The Back to the Future films being the most popular of the bunch. About Time and a few others have had interesting ways that they use time travel. The Greatest Hits is another such film. It’s a romantic film like About Time but puts an interesting twist on this genre.

A couple Harriet (Lucy Boynton) and Max (David Corenswet) seem happy. They go swimming, dancing,  and hang out together. One of their favorite things to do is listen to music wherever they go. In the car, at home, or anyplace else for that matter. Until a tragic car accident happens and turns their lives upside down. As a result of the accident, Harriet develops a time-travel problem.

Boynton’s character has an issue that when she listens to music she travels back in time to her relationship with Max. She has a theory that if she finds the right record she’ll be able to stop time-traveling and get on with her life. The problem is while extending her weekly therapy session on grief she meets another man, David (Justin H Min) who turns out to be her soulmate. 

The movie has a nice mix of supporting characters that play integral part in the main story. A few of them are a friend of Boyntons character who is a bit of DJ played by Austin Crute. He gives a lot of advice to Boytons character whether she wants to hear it or not. He has some funny moments in the film. Retta plays the leader of the theory group Boynton Min’s character goes to. She tries to get Boyton’s character to open up more about her loss. She’s very good in this role. The last but not least supporting character I want to bring up in Min’s characters sister Edie played by Andie Ju. She is a bit of a conscience for him while he’s dealing with this strange situation. This supporting cast is pretty good. I wish more were as good as these actors were in their roles.

His family owned an antiques store that she liked to visit and this has a connection to the pair. They do a lot of similar things Harriet did with Max but she seems to enjoy her time with this new boyfriend.  He enjoys similar music and other things she likes to do. The problem is she eventually has to tell him about her little problem. That’s not easy, and it’s not something everyone would believe.  In fact, it’s something that would make people think you’re crazy.

I kind of liked this character played by Boynton.  She has a fun nature and appreciates good music. She’s a bit of a free spirit and just needs to find someone else who can be that person she needs so she can forget about Max.  The issue with the film is the time travel. It convoluted the main story by having the main character have a connection to the past.That’s what keeps this relationship and movie from totally working.

Boynton and Minh are good in their roles and I was genuinely interested in their relationship. She played this character pretty straightforwardly but the time-travel angle threw the performance off. Min has done some good stuff in the past namely After Yang which is another sci-fi movie. His performance was OK but like Boyton’s character, he seemed to be thrown off by the film’s premise. I think in another romantic film without this kind of sci-fi twist to it these two might work.

The Greatest Hits is far from the greatest film I’ve seen this year. It has some fascinating things about it that don’t all come together. The time travel element threw the whole movie off for me. The romantic stuff was good but it got lost in the sci-fi angle the director Ned Benson was going for. I would rather see a rom-com with Boyton and Min in it to see if their chemistry was real or not. Alas this film didn’t blow me away. It was just okay.

2 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen