The film begins with Nora staring off into space, holding an avocado.
Ada suggests that if it's gone bad, she throw it away, but she insists that she can just
cut around the bad parts.
The scene shifts to dinner, where a wine bottle accidentally slips from Ada's grasp.
It irritates her, and she requests that Al do something, to which he reluctantly agrees.
He requests that Deborah turn back time so that the wine bottle can be resurrected and
unharmed.
The rest of the group is unaware, but has a feeling of déjà vu.
As the night progresses, we gain a better understanding of the characters of the friends.
They've all known each other since high school, and Nora is slowly turning to alcoholism to
cope with her life's failures.
Chet continues to act like a typical high school jock, cracking juvenile jokes.
Jim is a conservative, and despite being with Ada, Al is still in love with Nora.
They all appear to be aware of Deborah's abilities and keep rewinding time to cover up any errors
or outbursts.
For example, when Nora is confronted with her alcoholism during dinner, she becomes
brutal with her opinions about the rest of her friends, and Al and Ada are forced to
rewind time to make things right.
The next day, while sitting with the three women, Jim reveals his sexist and conservative
side, which enrages the women.
Gaby, on the other hand, keeps rewinding time with Deborah in order to normalize the situation.
However, the rewinds have consequences.
For example, Jim discovers a mark on his hand from when he was stabbed there during one
of Deborah's time travels.
He feels like an outcast in the group because he is constantly bullied and mocked.
Another person by the name of Frank exists.
We won't know where he fits in the group until much later.
He plays the role of the rational conscience, the only one who feels like an actual adult
capable of dealing with his emotions.
During a conversation with Chet, he attempts to bring up the latter's nihilistic attitude
and wonders if it stems from his life disappointments.
Chet peaked in high school, but since then, he's been stuck in a dead-end job and no longer
reigns as King of the Jungle, forcing him to turn to nihilism as a coping mechanism.
When Chet learns of this, he tries to strangle Frank, but Ada stops time and takes Frank
for a walk, during which she expresses her dissatisfaction with the group and their dysfunctional
dynamic.
In fact, she reveals that she had taken a DNA test, which revealed that she was, in
fact, Al's sister, and that she now has no idea what to make of her future.
When she returns home, she notices Al attempting to kiss Nora in the storeroom.
Despite Nora's pushes, she witnesses him rewind time and do the same thing twice.
With her memory restored, Nora asks Al to promise her that he will never do the time
rewind thing when they are alone.
When they step outside, Ada is enraged and reveals what Al has been up to in front of
the entire group.
Nora is enraged and confronts him about it when he tells her that he has worked his entire
life and she still does not consider him worthy of her.
Nora informs him that she is not a prize to be won, but a deeper confrontation reveals
that she is still living a fantasy in which she is the main character in every setting
and only good things happen to her.
Following that, Al tells her that she has never amounted to much in her life, prompting
the others to defend her.
Deborah refuses to follow orders and refuses to rewind time in the midst of it all.
‘Deborah’ Ending Explained: Does Deborah Rewind The Time?
With the friends finally forced to confront their feelings without the crutch of Deborah's
time rewinding, chaos ensues, with people revealing their true nature and willing to
go to any length to win.
They begin attacking each other, and before long, they are all injured to the point of
immobility.
But Nora and Frank are still awake.
Deborah is asked to turn back the clock 36 hours.
Deborah refuses, claiming that the result will be the same.
Frank asks Nora why she wants this, and she responds that she wants the main character
to have a happy ending.
Deborah agrees to rewind when Frank requests it.
The scene shifts to Nora, who is sitting with an avocado in her hand.
The conversation between her and Ada takes on a new meaning in this context.
If it's rotten, Ada tells her to throw it away, but Nora prefers to cut out the bad
parts and work with the good ones.
It's an allegory about how, rather than leaving the toxicity behind, she chooses to carve
it into her own happy ending fantasy.
Deborah does have the ability to rewind time, but the emotional residue, which is a metaphor
for the untreated trauma that the characters are constantly inflicting on one another,
is just piling up.
Since the beginning, each of the friends has felt as if they were playing a part.
There was a frustration just beneath the surface.
It makes us wonder how many times this weekend has repeated itself.
Deborah wasn't speculating; she knew the outcome would be the same because she had seen it
so many times.
Final Thoughts: What Is The Deeper Message Of The Film?
The characters played by the friends in the film represent various aspects of modern American
society.
Jim represents the conservative side, Chet represents the prevalent toxic masculinity,
Ada represents the American housewife still trying to make things work despite the redundancy,
and Al represents the promise of a new age who is unable to shake the shadow of the regressive
old America.
And Nora represents the American dream—the promise of progress and revolution that faded
over time and became only an exciting memory and a disappointing reality.
Frank is the voice of reason, the one who can make a difference, but his voice is currently
too timid to be heard.
Deborah is the average American who keeps giving them chances despite knowing she is
being taken advantage of because they don't want to do the work of making better people
out of themselves.
They are all stuck in time, with no real progress and only accumulating trauma.
It is widely assumed that they all 'peaked' in high school.
This could be a reference to the America of a few decades ago, when the tools of toxic
masculinity and conservatism laid the groundwork for modern-day capitalism, which is struggling
to survive and thrive in today's new age of woke consciousness.
The metaphor is fantastic and reminds me of the 2017 film "Mother!"
though it is far less grim and far more effective.
This is a film that should be seen if only for the intelligence with which it is executed.
Another film like this that came out this year is "Meet Cute," which uses time travel
to escape dealing with mental health issues.
We love that this film was made and will recommend it to everyone we know because it represents
a genuine attempt at good filmmaking.