What is going on in the movie “Primer”?

Having now watched “Primer” (2004) a second time on DVD (the first time being some months ago) I can authoritatively state that I don’t really know exactly what is going on in it.

The independently made movie (for a reported budget of $7000) explores the consequences of two physicists’ unexpected invention, a time machine put together in a garage that superconductively allows one to loop back in time and relive a day or part of a day. There are severe constraints on how the machine works and how it can be used. One can’t go flitting around to different eras of history. But Aaron and Abe can keep returning to the same stretch of several hours, so that several versions of them might be running around during that span, trying to perfect it. Filmmaker Shane Carruth (who also plays Aaron in the film) told the Village Voice that he feared Q&A about the film would be mostly about plot points, but it’s not surprising that viewers want a better idea of what happens than they can glean without special study. One site about the movie offers several different timelines to clarify events, each timeline apparently based on a different use of the machine or maybe a different version of a day or part of a day. Well, the timelines are confusing too.

The movie’s rapidfire mumbling technospeak, indirection and understatement, and slow unpeelings of meaning all make it both compulsively interesting and hard to solve. We know that at one level it’s about trust and betrayal, maybe also about biting off more than you can chew. But the permutations of plot are almost too indirect, almost too frustrating to try to decipher. “Almost” because I wouldn’t say the movie should have been raveled differently. It’s an effective, fascinating flick. Carruth tells Village Voice: “I know that you could watch it and think it’s some kind of random assemblage, like it’s a tone poem to time travel. But to know that there’s a method to it is half the battle. Two viewings seem to do it, but I can’t say you have to see it twice; that’s so pretentious.” Maybe my two viewings were too far apart. But I’ll probably see it again.