The curious thing about Ryan Reynolds has always been his wanting of a serious, dramatic acting career. For all of the low-brow, high budget comedies he’s been attached to, there’s always been a quirky independent film every now and again on his film resume. The latest is Chaos Theory, which made the independent rounds in 2007 before a quick venture into theatres in March of 2008. It now finds itself dumped into the DVD market this summer.
Chaos Theory follows the tale of Frank (Reynolds), a by the book efficiency expert who lives his life on a set schedule. When it gets thrown off by 10 minutes one day, an odd series of coincidences cause him to have to reevaluate everything about his life.
It’s interesting to see Reynolds in a dramatic role because his chops aren’t designed around drama. He has a good sense of comedic timing but he seems a bit overwhelmed in the role. He plays the role as if he’s in a sit-com for the most part, trying to pull off a combination of drama and comedy on a small level. He seems to be waiting for a laugh track or audience reaction, as if he’s lost as to what kind of reaction to go for. It’s interesting to see because Reynolds is a veteran of both the big and small screens and would seem to be able to know the difference.
The film itself suffers because it never feels like the characters inhabit the story. Marcos Siega seems to want to move his characters around like chess pieces in his story to develop dramatic tension but never seems to be able to get his character involved in it on any meaningful level. There’s also a sense of black comedy he seems to want to go for but never really pulls the trigger for it.
In the end of things, it’s a throwaway film that really doesn’t say much. It just exists.
Presented in both widescreen and full screen formats, Chaos Theory has a good transfer but not a terrific one. The colors come through cleanly and vividly, but nothing really stands out about it. The audio portion follows the same rule, as it’s solid but nothing spectacular. The audio takes advantage of the system fully but isn’t spectacular in and of itself.
Deleted Scenes are this DVD’s only extra. There aren’t any scenes that shed any light into the film.
With just a handful of irrelevant scenes to go on to a film that’s disposable, Chaos Theory is only a recommendation if you’re a Ryan Reynolds fan.
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Warner Bros. presentsChaos Theory. Directed by Marcos Siega. Starring Ryan Reynolds, Emily Mortimer, Sarah Chalke, Stuart Townsend. Written by Daniel Taplitz. Running time: 87 minutes. Rated PG-13. Released on DVD: June 17, 2008. Available at Amazon.com
