The Wrong Todd (2019) | Film Review

What if there existed a better version of…YOU?

The existential crisis contained within the confines of Rob Schulbaum’s The Wrong Todd is essentially that. If your doppelganger from a parallel universe made better life choices, would those that you love even notice it wasn’t you? Or could they become so enamored with the “new and improved” version that they could toss doubt to the wind and accept this better iteration with very little struggle?

Jesse Rosen stars as Our Todd, a schlubby everyman in Providence whose girlfriend, Lucy (Anna Rizzo), has just been offered a dream job in Seattle. When Lucy broaches the topic of them both changing coasts, Todd immediately shoots down her offer of cohabitation, and thereby causes a rift in their relationship.

Elsewhere, Other Todd (still Rosen) has managed to find his way to Our Todd. As Lucy walks off her frustration, Other Todd knocks Our Todd unconscious and shuttles him back to Other Todd’s dimension. The Todd Boys are now effectively living each other’s lives. And what we come to learn is that Other Todd has lost Lucy in his universe, and unlike Our Todd, he’s willing to do anything to get her back. Including swapping roles in a universe or two.

As soon as you introduce the backdrop of parallel universes, many reading this will immediately seize up with caution. Often times, films of this type can become needlessly convoluted and wrapped up in the details of the science behind it all. Those of you with these concerns can breathe a sigh of relief. Screenwriter and director Rob Schulbaum has little interest in bending your mind with the miniscule significance of universe hopping or gigawatts. Long term consequences and Butterfly Effects are simply not applicable to the story being told here. Instead, Schulbaum establishes the basic rules almost immediately, and then moves on to paying attention to what really matters: how the Todds handle their new worlds.

Our Todd is keenly aware he’s in the wrong dimension, as Lucy is no longer alive and his best friend Dave (Sean Carmichael), Lucy’s brother, is infinitely more mature and family focused than in Our Todd’s time, where Dave is a loveable loser who refuses to grow up and expand his horizons. This is where the subtle character tweaks between these two realities begin to take shape and make sense.

In Other Todd’s world, Lucy is deceased and those that love her are directly impacted. In Schulbaum’s clever script, joy and humor present in Our Todd’s reality is noticeably absent, replaced with gloom and loss. The only semblance of hilarity stems from Our Todd’s own interactions in the Upside Down. Meanwhile, as Other Todd assimilates in Our Todd’s life and his relationship with Lucy, the weight of what his psychosis from losing the love of his life only to reclaim her in another dimension slowly begins to visibly display its cracks.

Throughout it all, Jesse Rosen admirably proves up-to-the-task of selling us on two separate Todds with competing agendas. Rosen is so effective, that it becomes easily transparent which Todd we’re following at any given moment, which proves pivotal with so many duplicate scenarios and locations.

Likewise, Anna Rizzo portrays Lucy so naturally effective that her loss is always felt in Other Todd’s universe where her character no longer exists. It’s as though an integral piece of a puzzle is missing each and every time we return to this dimension. Toss in Sean Carmichael’s consistent scene-stealing as the always engaging Dave, in either dimension, and you have a cast worthy of such a bananas concept.

Rob Schulbaum, adapting his own short, showcases a real knack for turning a highly cerebral concept into a breezy relationship comedy. Films featuring alternate dimensions typically wear out their welcome long before the science is ever explained, and Schulbaum solves this dilemma by crafting characters and subplots that are far more interesting and engaging than knowing how it all clicks. If this is wrong, then I honestly don’t wanna be right.