Movie Review: “The Tomorrow Man”

By Matt Pascarella

Rated: PG-13

Running time: 1 hour 34 minutes

Last week’s movie was definitely on the heavy side, so with Valentine’s Day in progress, coming up or past, depending on when you read this, here is a lighter movie in which no one is running from the law.

Ed (John Lithgow) is I guess what you could call a Dooms Day prepper. He has a special room stocked with supplies and talks out loud and in chat rooms about ‘it all going down’ a lot. Ronnie (Blythe Danner) is more of a free spirit who prefers living in the moment.

“The Tomorrow Man” begins with Ed telling his son the importance of being ready. Ed is constantly in chat rooms talking with other like-minded individuals about conspiracies and what they believe to be strange occurrences; always planning for tomorrow.

When Ed meets Ronnie at the grocery store, he can’t get her out of his head and purposely stages a meeting. At first, she seems a little put off by Ed, but they go on a date and talk about their lives. Ronnie lives a very quiet life; her daughter died very young and she tells Ed she was her whole world. Ronnie now works at a boutique. After their date, Ed freaks out and tells Ronnie he really likes her and that scares him. Despite Ed’s strange behavior, they begin spending time together. 

Ronnie goes over to Ed’s where they watch TV. Ronnie tells Ed she likes being in his home. She falls asleep on his couch while watching TV. Afterwards, Ronnie is late for work. This part is a little funny.

Ed is kind of grump and thinks everything was better ‘back in the day’ (though he never actually says that exact sentence). Ed begins to trust Ronnie more and shows her his secret room, stocked with supplies. He tells her it’s his security blanket, his 401K. They spend more time together and grow closer.

He invites Ronnie to Thanksgiving dinner at his son’s house. Ronnie is excited for this. However, Ed and his son, Brian (Derek Cecil) have a rough relationship and Thanksgiving dinner turns into a big argument with everyone leaving the table except Ronnie and Brian’s wife, Janet (Katie Aselton).

At one point Ed sees Ronnie’s house and there are big piles of stuff everywhere. This scares Ed a little. While at Ronnie’s, Ed has a mini-stroke. He ends up being ok, but does this change the way he views the world? Or will he insist his old way of doing things is much better? Similar to Ebenezer Scrooge, can the people that love him help him realize it’s better to not always focus on tomorrow?

Overall, this was a good movie. It has the important lesson to be present, but not to worry about the ‘what ifs’ that life throws our way. Not an easy lesson to learn. Life is unexpected; sometimes, you’ve got to roll with the punches. This movie is kind of funny and has several heartfelt moments. I would recommend this as a movie to watch in the vicinity of Valentine’s Day. Two cans of non-perishable food up.