TV movies often come in for a lot of criticism for being weak, samey and often very sentimental and to be honest I have made those criticisms a few times but "Time and Again" or "Cheating Fate" as it is also known is different. It's different because it is a thriller which sees a woman finding herself in an alternate present when ever she opens an old music box, she has no control of what will happen but every time the box is opened the present changes and so does the past. In many ways it almost has a touch of "The Butterfly Effect" about it as this woman tries to put right events in the past to make the present better but every time she opens the box things don't work out that well. But whilst it is an intelligent TV movie it is also one which is riddled with plot holes which means that if you try and work it all out it begins to fall apart.

When Anna (Brooke Burns - The Most Wonderful Time of the Year) is too busy overseeing a house renovation she thinks nothing of her husband and daughter heading off to buy the snacks she was suppose to get, but when they die in a road accident she blames herself. 6 months after their death and Anna is still struggling but she learns that she has inherited an old house from an Aunt she never knew existed and so throws herself into cleaning it up. It is whilst cleaning this old house that she finds hidden away an old music box which she discovers has strange powers of changing the past and therefore the present.

I mentioned that "Time and Again" has a bit of "The Butterfly Effect" about it and it's not just in its concept as it has a similarity in it's basic structure. When things open we meet Anna being interviewed by police over her taking her daughter and threatening her husband but then it jumps back to an earlier time, 6 months prior. And at that point there is an accident which due to Anna being a workaholic leads to her husband and daughter dieing, confused? You are meant to be. And to be honest you stay confused for a little bit longer as we watch Anna struggle to come to terms with her loss whilst also inheriting an old house from an Aunt she never knew existed.

Now in a way this opening whilst intentionally setting up the confusion over whether her husband and daughter are dead or alive also sets up the mystery as to why Anna has never heard of her Aunt something which becomes clear as the story unfolds. But the most important thing is that she discovers this old music box, an innocent enough object which she thinks is both old and beautiful. But then all these strange things begin to happen, she starts hearing her husband's voice and seeing her daughter, people visit her at the old house then disappear and those who don't disappear have no recollection of visiting her. To put it simply it continues to create this web of confusion as to what is going on and what is so important about the music box.

Now whilst "Time and Again" is seriously riddled with plot holes the fact that the music box has this strange ability to create a new now and change the past makes for an interesting idea, the fact that you have no control over what it will change is not so good. But it does allow for some interesting scenes such as Anna one minute in a now where her husband and daughter are still alive, the next they are dead; one minute she is a loving wife the next she is having an affair. It not so much keeps you on your toes but makes you wonder how it will all end, will she get back to normality, will she have to settle on what is closest to normality and how comes when we first met her she was being interviewed by police for kidnapping her daughter. But it does overcrowd things with subplots from children mysteriously disappearing and the handyman who creepily keeps on showing up and sounds far too much like Forrest Gump.

One of the problems with "Time and Again" is that it is for all purposes a one woman show and whilst there are other characters from the Gumpish Billy through to the overly nice Mrs. Walkin pretty much everything revolves around the character of Anna. Now Brooke Burns does a solid job of playing Anna, delivering the sense of confusion when life stops making sense although the sense of panic never really materializes but she needed at least one strong character to help her out. Because of this it starts becoming samey, a bit repetitive as she goes from one confused state to another and the need for that strong character to interrupt the cycle screams out.

What this all boils down to it that for a TV movie "Time and Again" is pretty alright. It is full of issues and plot holes but has a good idea which it makes the most of and whilst Brooke Burns does a solid job the need for another strong character to stop it from becoming repetitive is a major issue.