A ‘Timeless’ Story of Love Between Losers

There’s a great deal of emotion and grit in Chris Hart’s “Timeless.” As Hart takes us into the lowest rungs in the blue-collar Irish neighborhood of Woodside, Queens, he seems to recognize that what will count is the depth of his feelings for his star-crossed lovers, who are attractive and likable but are neither notably intelligent nor interesting.

Hart and his first-rate cameraman, Chris Norr, have been able to draw upon a barrage of techniques--slow motion, dissolves, still photos--to express a profound caring for this pair. “Timeless” is as raw as Woodside’s fading, neon-glary streets. Yet it is passionately romantic.

Peter Byrne’s 17-year-old Terry has drifted into petty crime as his father spends whatever money he can get his hands on in trying to locate his long-missing wife--and in drowning his grief in drink. Meanwhile, Melissa Duge’s Lyrica has lost her job as a market cashier and has fallen into the thrall of an abusive pimp (Michael Griffiths).

With both their situations steadily worsening, Terry and Lyrica not surprisingly start plotting escape--to the more remote shores of off-season Long Island. But from the first moment they embark upon their plan, they make mistakes.

Yet Hart celebrates their idyll away from the city as the two teenagers fall in love. What they’re experiencing is indeed timeless, even if it is of brief duration.

Hart catches a sense of the transitory quality of life. Byrne and Duge involve us with the young lovers more than you would have ever thought possible for such a pair of rather dim losers--but who are not so dim as to lack self-awareness. Many filmmakers have used camera razzle-dazzle to freshen up a familiar story, but Hart, in his feature debut, is always in control of technique, absorbing it into a style that allows him to create a surprisingly affecting film.

* Unrated. Times guidelines: It includes strong violence and language.

‘Timeless’

Peter Byrne: Terry

Melissa Duge: Lyrica

Michael Griffiths: Tommy

A Phaedra Cinema presentation. Writer-director-editor Chris Hart. Producer Patricia Bice. Cinematographer Chris Norr. Music Joseph Hart Sr. Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes.

* Exclusively at the Grande 4-Plex, 345 S. Figueroa St., downtown Los Angeles, (213) 617-0268, and the South Coast Village 3, Bristol at Sunflower, South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, (714) 540-0594.