The Next One
The Time Traveler

In 1984, Keir Dullea not only returned as Dave Bowmen, looking exactly the same as when he disappeared into the giant monolith at the end of 2001: A Space Odyssey sixteen years earlier, but he also washed up on the shore of a Greek Island as another Earth man who traveled through another dimension in this obscure sci-fi offering. But The Next One (or The Time Traveler, as it was released in the US) is no 2010, The Year We Make Contact.Nor, for that matter, is it Starman, which would cover some similar narrative ground when it was released a couple of months later. Greek filmmaker Nico Mastorakis's story centers on the widow of an American astronaut (Adrienne Barbeau) who discovers the mysterious man, played by Dullea, washed up on the beach of a small island where she and her young son are living. The locals assume he's an escaped murderer who's in the news, but this savvy American is pretty sure he's OK; in fact, he may be just the type of guy she's looking for.

The movie starts out promising enough, with its gorgeous setting, attractive leads, and relaxed paces. But as things progress, the story becomes more and more ridiculous, building to a preposterous third act with several illogical subplots, a confused religious message, and a hockey "big reveal" that would make for a fine (if cheesy and pretentious) ending but the film continues on for another few minutes and completely contradict the points it had just made. Mastorakis also has no idea how to stage scenes of young children in peril, resorting to some ultra-low-budget tactics like shack-cam close-ups and rapid intercutting that utterly fails to sell any tension. We also have to buy the idea that young teenage Greek boys who live on an island and probably all the sons of fishermen don't know how to swim.