You know, if I had known that this was going to be that kind of movie, I would have skipped my generous pour of bourbon while watching. I definitely needed my wits about me because this one turned out to be a time travel/loop movie! On one hand, I absolutely love those types of movies. But on the other, I tend to prefer going into a movie with the most minimal knowledge of what it’s about. The Rose of Nevada was a shocker because I had expected this to be one of those heavy drama-type films. You know, a family with issues and no one can agree on what to do with a mysterious boat type of ordeal. Just drama with a lot of bickering and betrayal. With the way the director chose to shoot the movie with an old-school camera and in a 4:3 aspect ratio, that would have been a fun one. But oh no. We got something much more than just plain ol’ family drama.

We learn about a small red trawler boat mysteriously returning to harbor in a little village/community. It’s set to go back out to sea but needs a crew of three. We learn that a captain has agreed to navigate the boat and a lonely wanderer named Liam is willing to take on the job of fisherman. The third crew member becomes Nick. We see he needs money to repair his family’s roof and so he agrees to take on the job. The boat takes off and shit hits the fan. Once they return to harbor, Nick immediately realizes something is wrong—and indeed it is. They have somehow traveled back in time to the year 1993, three years before Nick was even born. Back to a time when his little community was actually full of people and businesses were actually thriving. Oh snaps.

I like this movie, but I can see why many others won’t. The use of such an old camera to film the movie may obviously put off some folks who aren’t used to it. There are many still scenes and shots that likely will anger some viewers. I think it’s one of those styles where a director wants to create something a bit more chic and artsy, but some will just consider it a waste of time. But to the actual story and time travel piece itself, it’s alright in my opinion. I think the most obvious piece is that both Liam and Nick have different reasons for wanting to go back to the trawler each and every time. Nick obviously wants to return back to his wife and daughter, and the boat is the only way he can do that. Liam, on the other hand, seems to not give two shits about it. He accepted his role as Alan in the past—very quickly, I might also add—because he ain’t got anything going on in his life prior to this happening. So, he accepts his role of dad to Tina and Jess and is willing to provide for them by working on the boat. I don’t think anyone can contest this part.

As to the mystery itself, we don’t know at the very end if Nick will make it back to the present—because of course we don’t. But we do see clues as to what happened. I think in the beginning, the ship was doomed because a man named Luke refused to board the boat. Because of this, the boat went missing. Luke somehow felt guilty and decided to jump off the cliff. With both Nick and Liam, the villagers somehow all believed that they were Luke and Alan. This sort of makes sense because they traveled back in time, but it’s obvious that in the picture that was taken, both the actual Luke and Alan were different-looking people. This is important because, to me, it hints at Nick’s fate. The other mysterious thing is that both Mike and Tina in the present somehow knew about the mysterious boat and the time-traveling piece of it. They both knew they were sending people in the present (Nick and Liam) back to the past to hopefully break the curse. I think? We do see that Nick, at the very end, decides not to follow the route of Luke by jumping off the cliff and instead returns to the boat. Will this be the curse breaker?

So here’s what I sorta don’t get. Why was so much importance put on that specific trip immediately after Nick decides not to jump off the cliff? We know for sure that the boat is doomed if it’s undermanned. But the thing is, the boat wasn’t undermanned when Nick joined prior to getting lost, when he agreed to be the third member. So why did the boat get lost in the first place (in the present, with Nick onboard) if the condition of the boat being undermanned was required? Next is the scrawling of the words on the boat. When Nick first boards, he sees the words “Get off the boat now” scrawled on the wood. But he obviously has no idea why he should get off nor who scrawled it. We then see later that the words mysteriously disappear and, even later, we see Nick himself scrawling the same words on the wood. Can we assume that this is where the closed loop of the time travel comes in? The words somehow mysteriously disappearing somehow hints that reality is bending and “resetting” itself.

So what happens to Nick? Personally, I don’t frigging know. 🤣 In the end, we somehow see the two realities blending together. When Nick thought about jumping, he somehow saw the flowers left on the cliff by Luke’s dad. Prior to boarding again, Nick somehow saw his wife and daughter, but this was likely his imagination. But if I had to really pick, I’d like to think he didn’t make it out. This doesn’t feel like one of those plots where the protagonist makes it out simply because they chose to be selfless in the end. However, I can’t explain why we learned that both Mike and Tina knew about the curse in the present timeline but were obviously oblivious to it in the past. Are they waiting for someone (Nick this time) to go through Luke’s old route but not commit suicide? Is that the “goal”? This is one theory to support Nick making it out because he obviously chose not to jump. Anyway, I want to think the timeline with the curse remains even if Nick somehow manages to escape. Two things I saw support this theory. First is Nick scrawling the words on the wood himself. Second, and more importantly, we see Mike taking a photograph of both Nick and Liam while on the boat. In the very beginning, we see the exact same picture but with Luke and Alan instead, who went missing.

What I’d like to think is that Nick becomes a victim of the curse and gets lost, and the curse continues. However, this time, instead of Nick, another person is chosen. This new person would now see the picture of the “missing” Nick and Liam in the photograph and not Luke and Alan. The boat mysteriously comes back to harbor like in the beginning. Basically, throughout the movie, we see just one version of the timeline where Nick and Liam trade places with the original two missing members. This new person goes through the same motion but in a new timeline, goes on the boat and sees the words “Get off the boat now,” but he doesn’t because he doesn’t know they’re lost just yet. The loop continues, they get lost, they return to the village, but the new duo are now treated as the missing Nick and Liam. I mean, maybe? 🤷‍♂️