I’ve mentioned it before, and I’ll say it again: I am always in the mood for a good timeline-jumping movie. I came upon The Greatest Hits while randomly browsing on Netflix, and the summary, which read, “Harriet discovers certain songs can transport her back in time” immediately caught my eye. I love music and the effect it has on our emotions and how it conjures memories. I was in. My poor husband was a bit more reluctant, but I had a feeling he would wind up liking it more than he anticipated.

So as described in the brief summary, our lead, Harriet (Lucy Boynton), is magically transported back in time when she hears certain songs. She happens to be brought specifically to moments with her ex-boyfriend, Max (David Corenswet), who died tragically in a car accident. Lucy was in that car accident, as well, and suffered a brain injury. This is somehow also where this power to time-travel came from. These episodes of time-travel are extremely burdensome, as Harriet appears outwardly to be having a seizure, concerning anyone who witnesses one. She is also distressed each time, as we learn that she is going back in time to try, unsuccessfully, to prevent the car accident from happening. In order to avoid uncontrolled episodes from occurring, Harriet wears headphones whenever she goes in public. 

In her grief support group, Harriet meets David (Justin H. Min), who is grieving the loss of both of his parents. They are immediately interested in each other, but Harriet’s grief poses an obstacle in this budding relationship. She confesses her time-travel ability to David, and he is understandably both confused and hurt. He is also, however, forgiving and very interested in Harriet, so they continue to explore their relationship.

I think this movie is worth watching, so I don’t want to spoil it. However, the ending is important in discussing the Catholic themes, so here goes. SPOILERS BELOW:

Harriet confesses and actually demonstrates her time travel ability to David. As she does this, she also discovers the exact song that will transport her to the moment she has been trying to find, the one she thinks will prevent Max from dying. Harriet has previously explained to David (and to us) that she is only able to alter her own actions in the past, no one else’s. She goes back to the moment, attempts to convince Max to change his mind, and he refuses. She realizes that her efforts are futile, Max will die anyway, and that she is not really living much of a life in the present, either. Her conclusion is to go all the way back in time to the moment she meets Max and not pursue a relationship with him, knowing that she will not only lose all of her time with him, but miss out on meeting David as well. At the end of the movie, we see that Harriet is successful. Max is still alive and is in another relationship, and she re-meets David at a concert.

SPOILERS OVER: There are two major Catholic themes here: free will vs. fate, and sacrifice. As Catholics, we believe in free will, not fate. We believe that God’s will always manifests itself, but He does not control how we bring about His will.

The movie seems, at first, to emphasize fate, or as we commonly think of it: what will happen, will happen. However, these occurrences are actually occurring as the consequences of free will. Max’s initial choices led to his death. However, he was not doomed to die in the alternate timeline, the result of pursuing a different sequence of choices. The fact that she and David still meet anyway is because of the choices of their own free will, and maybe a bit of God’s hand, too. 

The other theme is sacrifice. Harriet chose to sacrifice all of the love and memories she had built with Max AND the new love she was developing in order to save Max’s life and to finally live a life of her own. Sacrifice is difficult because it involves the giving up of something we really want to hold onto. But as this movie depicts, sacrifice usually brings about wonderful fruit. We are blessed, as Catholics, to experience the fruit of our Lord’s sacrifice daily.

Side note: there is one sex scene that can easily be skipped! 

I really liked this movie. Certain parts could have used a bit more development, such as Max and Harriet’s relationship, but I found it satisfying enough that I would watch it again. My husband did wind up enjoying it, though I don’t think he would watch it again. He is much more critical about the intricacies of time travel and character development. If you want a unique love story with some strong themes, you’d enjoy this movie.