The Anomaly

Plot

The film is set in a futuristic setting involving a battle over control of the mind and of cutting-edge biotechnology. Ex-soldier Ryan Reeve (Noel Clarke) wakes up in the back of a van next to a young boy, Alex (Art Parkinson), who is being held prisoner. He frees the boy and must work out what is happening in bursts of exactly nine minutes and forty-seven seconds, as the control and conscious awareness of his body is repeatedly being hijacked by another person. He teams up with the mysterious "Dana" (Alexis Knapp) as he battles a conspiracy known as "Anomaly" led by Harkin Langham (Ian Somerhalder).

Cast

Production

The film was produced in the United Kingdom in 2013. Clarke performed his own stunts, modifying his diet and receiving fight training for the purpose.

Distribution

The first official trailer was released on 19 April 2014. The film was shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival in June 2014 and entered general release in the UK and the Republic of Ireland through Universal Pictures on 4 July.

Reception

The film was unanimously panned by critics, with a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 0% based on 16 reviews, making it the worst reviewed British film of 2014. On Metacritic, it has a score of 27 out of 100 from 7 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Mark Kermode of The Observer called it "ambitious but uneven". Other critics described it as "hilariously naff science-fiction mularkey" and "a peculiar Brit flick best described as a noble failure" and referred to "tangled conception and tortuously opaque execution" and to "meag[re] rewards for those willing to endure its laborious convolutions".