The title “Palm Springs” is the location of the story. It’s an oasis city in the middle of the Colorado desert in the USA, which enjoys 360 sunny days a year. The main character, Niles, follows his girlfriend to the city for a wedding. On the day of the wedding, his girlfriend wakes up early to get ready because she is a bridesmaid, while the hero wakes up under a pair of beautiful legs with a holiday in mind. Although these two look mushy, in reality, his girlfriend is very promiscuous and has been getting involved with many wedding guests over the past few days. The hero knows he is being cheated on, but is slow to make up his mind to break up.
At the dinner party, he fails to control his emotions. He takes the opportunity of his speech to deliver a negative “philosophy of life” speech: for a moment, the air seems to freeze. But this speech unexpectedly attracts the attention of the bride’s sister, the heroine Sara. For Sara is also a decadent person who has spent her life in a muddle. After listening to the speech, she thought there was something interesting about the man. The two of them confirm their eyes and immediately flee the party into the wilderness. But that’s when the tables turn – the hero has just finished taking off his trousers when he is hit by a cold arrow flying through the air! What’s even stranger is that he seems to know who the attacker is. While running frantically, he calls out the name of his opponent: to escape Roy’s pursuit, he drags his wounded body to a cave. There seems to be a fire in the cave, but the hero thinks nothing of it and dives in. At this point the camera pans and the hero opens his eyes again – he is back on the morning of his wedding. Yes, this is another one of those “protagonist trapped in a time loop” films. Whenever the hero dies, falls asleep or enters the mysterious cave, he restarts the wedding day. He doesn’t know what triggers the loop and he doesn’t know how to get out.
He finds out that his girlfriend has cheated on him because he has lived this day a million times, and the message about how “life is boring” is from his heart. However, there are some obvious innovations to Palm Springs over the familiar recycled set-pieces like Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow and Happy Death Day. Firstly, the film introduces a multiplayer loop. The hero once gets drunk at a party and takes the bride’s uncle into the cave with him. As a result, the uncle wakes up and finds himself trapped in the loop, and has been abusing the hero as a pastime ever since. …… The Roy in front of him, the one who released the arrow, is him.
And Roy was not the only one who chased him to the mouth of the cave – Sara, worried about the hero’s injuries, also quietly trailed him into the cave. Then the eyes closed and opened, and time reverted to that morning. Sara instantly noticed that the situation was bizarre. As no one around her has any memory of “yesterday”, she finds her way to the hero. And that brings us to the film’s second trick. Because the hero is already a “veteran”, the film skips over the usual panic and fumbling after the protagonist has just fallen into a loop. The hero explains the situation in a few words and tells the heroine that she has tried everything she can think of. And whether it’s killing herself, blowing up a cave, or going on a good mission, nothing can break the cycle.
Any one of the three who are trapped dies or falls asleep and time will restart in tandem. Not only that, he also put forward his theory based on experience – since there is no escape, why not accept the reality that even if you can’t walk out of this day, you can still enjoy life all the same.
After hearing this, the heroine tokenistically tries a few times and soon surrenders. She gradually realises that there are advantages to being caught in a cycle, such as not getting old, not being responsible for any of her actions, and not being too lonely and bored with the male protagonist’s company. They sometimes spend the whole day eating and drinking, sometimes dealing with Roy’s raids, sometimes getting into a bit of mischief, and fully enjoying the pleasure of wasting time.
One night the two went to the edge of the valley to look at the stars and actually saw a few dinosaurs in a trance …… This may have been a cave-induced temporal dislocation. The two were shocked by the sight before them and realised at the same time that no one would believe and understand what they were seeing – the time loop had not only trapped them in a day, it had also completely isolated them from the real world. And in this cycle that will not end, all they can have for real is each other. But just when you think the film is about to become a love story, the plot suddenly takes a turn for the worse – The main character has a slip of the tongue and reveals that he has used his plug to date Sara numerous times before she entered the loop …… except that it was after time had rebooted and she had no memory of it.
This made Sara so angry that she left without saying goodbye and disappeared from the scene. The hero never found her again and had to go back to his old lonely life …… But in reality, Sara never left the place, nor was she angry with the hero. She just suddenly realizes that there is nothing real in the cycle. Even if she manages to fall in love with the male protagonist, their relationship, their own lives, cannot move to the next stage. Therefore, she takes up the path of research with a vengeance. Slipping out early every morning, she hides away alone to study quantum mechanics …… The picture of the film thus turns inspirational.
Through countless days of study, Sarah went from beginner to master and eventually became a physics guru. After a few experiments, she thinks she has found a way to break the cycle and comes back to the hero with the result. What she doesn’t expect is that the hero doesn’t want to leave, and urges her to stay too. In his opinion, the real world is not a good place to be, so it is better to stay here and be with each other, happy and free every day.
So where do the two of them end up and will the heroine’s method succeed in returning to reality or not? If you are interested, why not go to the film to find out? What can be said is that this unconventional comedy with a funky and decadent beginning is full of positive energy with its “love saves all and knowledge changes destiny” ending. Although the time loop is not new, the film still offers a number of surprises. Firstly, the film uses a dual perspective narrative in a multi-person loop setting. Each time time time restarts, the narrator of the story switches between the male and female protagonists. This makes the audience not have the same God’s perspective as the protagonists, which greatly increases the sense of suspense.
Secondly, the film leaves a number of details blank. For example, an old woman at the wedding reception has two conversations with the protagonist, both of which imply that she seems to know about the existence of the time loop. She also makes a point of coming to say goodbye as the heroine is about to carry out her escape plan. The film does not explain why the group of dinosaurs, which pass by, but which spark a love affair between the hero and heroine, appear, leaving the audience room for interpretation and reverie.
Even the ending has a hint of mystery. According to the creators, the film was filmed with multiple endings and no one could decide which one was better, so they organised a private screening with friends to choose the most popular one. After the screening, it turned out that the audience had a different interpretation of the ending.
This is because the point of the film is not really to make clear the theory of the time loop. It borrows this setting for a love simulation game and presents the creator’s thoughts on love and gender relations through the choices made by the two protagonists. The hero and Sara are both “bad” people in the eyes of the people around them before they fall into the cycle. They have always been discontented with their status quo and have been living with a broken heart.
After their unexpected encounter, they are stuck for a day, but they both try to change – the hero breaks up with his long-suffering girlfriend, and Sara gets rid of her scumbag p-friend. This shows that love does have the ‘magic’ to save a person. When people in love are with each other, they fall into a romantic cycle as if they were isolated from the world. However, part of the “magic” of love comes from imagination and a selective ignorance of reality. The hero has said that he has slept with every man and woman in the wedding party in countless cycles for the thrill of it. …… When she hears this, Sarah doesn’t even think about being one of them.
The fact that the man’s mouth is full and the two of them have a love affair shows that even being in a cycle and just having each other as lovers does not keep a relationship “fresh” forever. Or maybe it’s the fact that facing the pressures and challenges of the real world together that makes love what it is, and what makes a relationship so precious. The third person in the film, Roy, who has a small part in the film, is a testament to this.
The reason for his misadventure into the cave is his pessimism about his marriage and his future, and his drunken words of “I hope I stay in my prime forever”. After the prophecy comes true, he is driven mad by the fact that he can never move forward in life. This is why the heroine says that everything in the cycle is meaningless.
The hero’s theory is just an excuse to escape from himself and from reality. Yet how can a man who cannot face the truth attain true love?
