Parking enforcement officer Randall (Eric Starkey) leads a simple life. He eats at his favorite restaurant daily, relaxes in his recliner after work and, save for the occasional troublemaker and an abused parking loophole where a person can park in front of a broken meter for free, very little trouble seems to find him. Well, at least until he gets diagnosed with a terminal heart condition and finds that his time alive is suddenly limited.
Top on his list of things to do before he dies is to get the damn meter fixed so he can finally see parking justice against the offender who has been abusing the law for over a year, but other than that, he really just wants to keep things status quo. Which would be fine, except his friends and family, upon learning of his condition, decide that they all know better than he does about how best to spend his final days.
His friend Jay (Topher Owen), a character straight out of the Jack Black school of over-the-top and obnoxious, seems intent on making Randall’s final days exciting, while his girlfriend Sasha (Carrie Slaughter) wants him to impregnate her and his mother (Rebekah Turner) wants to find a cure, no matter how far-fetched her ideas may be, and dote over him until his dying breath. Randall, however, just can’t get that damn broken meter out of his head.
Nick Lawrence’s Time Expired is a simple comedy about mortality. When your time is short, which is more important, staying true to yourself and your wishes in your final days or pleasing your loved ones? Do the two options really need to be mutually exclusive?
In the end, this is Eric Starkey’s film, and his portrayal of Randall is what pulls you through. Essentially his role winds up as the relatable foil for every other insane character in the film. In what winds up being a whirlwind of almost cartoon character level performances by those around him, it’s the dying man obsessed with a broken parking meter who winds up being the most normal.
Time Expired is a fun film, and the more philosophical undertones of life and death are kept appropriately behind-the-scenes so that the affair doesn’t get too somber. In the end, this isn’t a film about a man dying, but a man trying to stay true to himself at all costs… oh, and hopefully getting that damn parking meter fixed.
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