Palm Springs (2020)

Palm Springs is a movie that on the surface of it should not work.  Everyone has seen the story of the burn out girl at the wedding that doesn’t have her life together.  This time that woman is played by Cristin Mlioti who people may know from her Broadway run as The Girl from Once The Musical or The Mother from How I Met Your Mother.  Milioti is Sarah the bridesmaid at her sister’s wedding weekend.  Sarah believes love is a fallacy because of this she spends most of the wedding reception being cold and withdrawn.  This all changes when she meets Nyles played by Andy Sandberg.  He gives a speech on why love matters and there is no reason to be jaded.  This speech catches Sarah’s attention but furthermore Nyles seems to anticipate small occurrences that happen while the two are getting to know each other.  The conversations lead to Nyles and Sarah hooking up on a beach and then Nyles gets shot in the leg and escapes to a glowing cave.  Sarah follows Nyles through the cave and she restarts the day she just had all of her memories intact from her time with Nyles.  He explains that the two of them are in a time loop of the day her sister was married and the subsequent wedding reception and everything that comes after is how this makes this film close to an instant classic.

Ever since I was kid I’ve loved any science fiction movies that had to do with time and time looping.  I didn’t even think I would like this film because it eerily resembled the Bill Murray classic Groundhog’s Day but where this film diverts from what we’ve previously seen is how the film deals with its characters and their life choices.  Sandberg’s Nyles comes off in both personality and in conversation as a know-it-all and that’s because he is.  He looped so many times he knows the whole day back to front.  He knows everything except Sarah and the whole movie essentially hinges on this person he’s brought into his life and the philosophy he lives by where in nothing really matters.  In a way, Nyles embodies the mindset of someone who has nothing to lose and Sarah gives him someone to learn from.

Sarah on the other hand initially goes from hating the loop to treating it like a vacation from all her mistakes forcing her to do something she has never done which is enjoy life.  The time loop causes her to literally make peace with her mistakes and be a better person but as her relationship with Nyles changes she reevaluates who she could be.

This movie adds dramatic elements to a genre that usually has no use for them.  This is what makes it so special.  There are two very big revelations that occur after both characters realize what they feel for each other might be more than friendship and this is where the movie completely shines.  I have never seen Any Sandberg as someone who could be a dramatic actor but something about the vulnerability that comes through his performance halfway through the film touched me.  Nyles comes across as a person often disregarded and I think after all of those loops he had experienced to genuinely find someone that could not only appreciate his antics but invent some of her own allowed him to be open about not treating life so casually anymore.

This film also has one other secret weapon that hurls it from on demand mediocrity to something far more memorable in the form of J.K. Simmons Roy.  Roy’s significance in Nyles’s life is crucial.  He starts out as an enemy angry at Nyles for trapping him in the loop but offers really wise advice that he learned along the way after looping so much.  The scene the two share in the backyard gives the movie all the heart we didn’t know it needed.

In the end Palm Springs managed to do something most movies about time and time travel fail to do and that is being more than just about the humor of the situation.  This is definitely a film to check out.

Palm Springs is currently streaming on Hulu.