Aaron Pierre, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Ken Leung, Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps star in a scene from the movie "Old." The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. (CNS/Universal Pictures)

By Catholic News Service

In between an intriguing set-up and a reasonably credible conclusion, this thriller loses its way, becoming by turns tedious and chaotic.

A couple (Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps) on the verge of divorcing and their young children (Nolan River and Alexa Swinton) join other guests from the resort hotel at which they’re vacationing for a daylong excursion to a secluded beach. There, they discover that time is passing at an unnaturally rapid rate and that escape from the spot appears to be impossible.

Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan’s adaptation of Pierre Oscar Levy and Frederik Peeters’ 2010 graphic novel “Sandcastle,” which also features Rufus Sewell as a troubled physician as well as Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie as the kids in sudden adolescence, makes a few points about vanity and the perspective conferred by age. But audience interest evaporates as swiftly as the accelerated chronology advances.

Some bloody violence, medical gore, brief rear nudity, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, a couple of profanities, several milder oaths, at least one use each of rough and crass language. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III — adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 — parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

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