The Shift (2023)Review

Director: Brock Heasley
Cast: Kristoffer Polaha, Neal McDonough, Elizabeth Tabish, Rose Reid, John Billingsley, Paras Patel, Jordan Alexandra, Sean Astin
Cert: PG-13
115 mins

Written and directed by Brock Heasley (expanding from his own short film), The Shift is a Christian science-fiction thriller that is effectively a retelling of the Book of Job, with a sci-fi twist. As such, it’s well acted and has some intriguing ideas, but it never quite gels into a satisfying whole.

The film begins in 2008, with hedge fund manager Kevin Garner (Hallmark Channel star Kristoffer Polaha) losing his job after the collapse of Bear Stearns, but also meeting the love of his life, Molly (Elizabeth Tabish) in a bar on the same night. Years later, their marriage is in trouble following the death of their son, and Kevin ends up in a car crash, only to be rescued by a mysterious man calling himself The Benefactor (Neal McDonough).

The Benefactor (who is clearly Satan, though never named as such) explains that he has the power to shift people into alternate realities as a form of torment, and says that if Kevin agrees to work with him as one of his Shifters (by wearing a device called a Deviator), he will grant him whatever he desires. However, when a demonstration of The Benefactor’s power strands a young woman (Rose Reid) in a universe where she never existed, Kevin refuses the offer, and ends up trapped in a dystopian universe, with seemingly no hope of getting home.

Years later, living incognito, Kevin has become a legendary figure, known as “The Kevin Who Refused”, because all the other alternate universe Kevins took The Benefactor’s deal. One day, after his friend Russo (John Billingsley) shows him a glimpse of an alternate reality where Molly is still alive, Kevin devises a plan to force The Benefactor into returning him to his own reality.

The script lays on the comparisons to The Book of Job pretty thick, just in case anyone isn’t paying full attention, by having Kevin tell the story to a wide-eyed young child at a certain point. To give the film credit, it does at least follow through on the central idea, even if the journey gets a little wobbly.

A key problem is the completely superfluous flashback structure. The film begins with an arresting image (Kevin emerging from a lake, and then disappearing into thin air) and gives him a portentious voiceover, catching the viewer up to that point in flashback, but the story point seems irrelevant when we get there and the narration barely features afterwards.

On a similar note, no real thought has been given to the Shifting concept, beyond the basic idea, which is admittedly intriguing. For example, at one point Kevin acquires the ability to Shift himself, but there’s no real logic to the Shifts, and Heasley lacks the imagination to make those scenes either inventive or fun. There aren’t enough of them either – at one point Kevin encounters a gangster version of himself with two scantily-clad girlfriends, and that’s about it.

The performances are mostly excellent. Polaha has real charisma and makes a likeable lead, and there’s strong support from both Billingsley, and from Sean Astin as Gabriel, Kevin’s only friend in the dystopian universe. Similarly, McDonough – who’s always been a reliably sinister, charming presence across multiple movies and TV shows – is superb casting as the Devil, and he’s clearly enjoying himself in every scene.

That said, the actresses are less fortunate, as neither Rose Reid nor Elizabeth Tabish are given enough screentime to establish why we should care about their characters, or the central relationship in general. To that end, the supposedly emotional scenes fall a little flat and lack the impact the filmmakers obviously intended.

However, the film’s biggest issue is the finale, which makes sense in the context of the Job story, but doesn’t feel dramatic enough, given the sci-fi elements of the plot.

In short, this is a watchable sci-fi thriller, enlivened by strong performances and some nice ideas, but it fails to satisfy on a dramatic or emotional level. Also, on a practical note, there are a solid fifteen minutes of credits at the end, due to all the crowdfunders that need thanking, as well as a mid-credits video message from one of the cast, if you like that sort of thing.

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