Time travel is unpredictable business. Just ask the blokes of the UK movie “Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel”, a sci-fi comedy that barely has any big-budget special effects, but still manages to be pretty darn good if you enjoy wacky stories about time paradoxes, hot girls from the future, and drinks in a pub.

The film stars Chris O’Dowd as Ray, an enthusiastic nerd (or “imagineer”, as he insists on being called) with a penchant for sci-fi and a fountain of useless time travel knowledge. Along with buddies Toby (Marc Wootton) and Pete (Dean Lennox Kelly), Ray stumbles across a “time leak” in, appropriately enough, the bathroom of their local pub. He also meets Cassie (Anna Faris), a pretty American time travel fixer of sorts from the future. Cassie’s occupation comes in handy when Ray and the boys begin to stumble in and out of the pub’s bathroom, entering and exiting new timelines each time. All the while, they are burdened with the knowledge that, at some point in the night, they will be murdered by an unknown assailant.

Forget fancy intergalactic shootouts or CGI aliens with ray guns. “Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel” is bare-bones sci-fi, a time travel movie that is entirely reliant on its script, as well as its actors to pull off said script. Fortunately for our movie, both are on the money, and “FAQ” manages to be clever and exciting without having to rely on a big budget. Directed by Gareth Carrivick, a veteran TV director, and written by Jamie Mathieson, “FAQ” relies heavily on its three main castmembers as they stumble their way through time, muddling up the timeline along the way, all without ever having left the immediate area around their precious pub. Relying on a single locale for your film is potentially dangerous to a film’s creativity, but “FAQ” pulls it off with flying colors.

“FAQ” is a comedy first, and there are plenty of chuckles to be had. Notice I said chuckles, not laughs. This is a British comedy, after all, so gut-grabbing, rolling in the aisles laughter is obviously not the order of the day, or indeed, the desired reaction. Although I’ve read British reviews that declared the film’s humor to be so Brit-centric as to be detrimental to the film’s International appeal, which is silly. I had a ball chuckling along with the film’s script, and I never felt as if I was missing out on a gag that only Brits would “get”. As such, I think the film would play just fine beyond its borders.

Although Anna Faris shows up in all of the film’s posters, and will probably get top billing if the movie ever ends up in the American market, “FAQ” is really about the three chaps and their adventures in and out of the pub’s bathroom. Faris shows up at intervals throughout the movie, and although there is romance between her and the male lead, it’s really not explored enough to be believable. Actually, I would have liked to know more about the world that Cassie comes from, but of course that kind of exploration would require a huge jump in the budget. As the blokes, O’Dowd, Wootton, and Kelly have good chemistry, which is a good thing because the film spends an awful lot of time with them. Actually, the trio is onscreen pretty much the entire time, so it helps they’re all solid actors.

With about 80 minutes of running time to work with, “Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel” never outstays its welcome. Carrivick does well to keep the film moving at a nice pace, and there are plenty of clever camera tricks that relies heavily on creative angles and seamless cuts to explore the film’s many time paradoxes, the results of characters being in two places at once and in most cases, eavesdropping on their earlier (or future) counterparts. This is one of the film’s charms – it does a great job of orchestrating all the timeline paradoxes and recalling what seemed like insignificant scenes from the past that, as it turns out, becomes huge plot points when we see it from another vantage point.

“Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel” proves that you don’t need a huge Hollywood budget to make a good science fiction movie. A clever script, a good director, and dead-on excellent editing will do wonders on any movie set. And of course, Anna Faris is her cute self and makes for excellent eye candy, which is never a bad thing. Never underestimate the importance of a cute girl in a sci-fi movie. If you’re into sci-fi at all, and don’t need things blowing up or lasers flashing across the screen every few seconds, give “FAQ” a shot. I think it’ll prove worthy of your, ahem, time.

Gareth Carrivick (director) / Jamie Mathieson (screenplay)
CAST: Chris O’Dowd … Ray
Marc Wootton … Toby
Dean Lennox Kelly … Pete
Anna Faris … Cassie