Press Play is a new romantic science fiction film directed and partly written by Greg Björkman. This is only the first film he has directed and written for him.
The film is about Laura (Clara Rugaard), who starts a relationship with Harrison (Lewis Pullman) after they are matched up by their stepsister and best friend. When Harrison dies in a car accident, Laura finds herself in a dark period where she doesn't know how to move on with her life.
Four years after Harrison's death, Laura discovers she can go back in time with the mixtape they made together. She then travels back to the moment where they first heard the songs from the mixtape together. So she tries to inform Harrison and save with the information from the future. This is what she must do before she has played through all the songs on the mixtape and gone through her chances of saving him.
Greg Björkman and his co-writer James Bachelor are both on the novice in the movie world and seem to be inspired by the Back to the Future movies for their first film project. So they put this film in a lesser, but still somewhat similar way. Furthermore, this film also resembles the video game Life is Strange. Because of these comparisons, the movie can quickly come across as predictable to those familiar with these movies or video game.
In addition to the ideas and storylines that the writers have adopted, their own story is a bit on the messy side and lacks, for example, clear explanations about how certain things are possible in the film. The film is also somewhat repetitive due to all the time travel scenes. This can make the film a bit more tedious for older viewers.
Thanks to the rushed pace in the beginning of the film, the relationship between the two main characters also comes across as a bit too rushed and as a viewer you miss real chemistry between the two.
Clara Rugaard, like the writers and director, is also at the beginning of her acting career and because Lewis Pullman is quickly outplayed in the film, she has to keep the film running largely on her own. Unfortunately, she does not always succeed in this very well and sometimes comes forward with a bit of hesitation or stiffness. Fortunately, she sometimes gets help from Danny Glover who delivers the best acting in the film. With a bigger role, he could have helped Laura and the story more to move forward.
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