The Adam Project review – big-hearted family time-travel adventure

Ryan Reynolds reunites with Free Guy director Shawn Levy for a time-travelling romp that matches their previous collaboration for excitable energy, and surpasses it for likability. Reynolds dials down his punchable smirk but keeps the swagger to play Adam, a renegade pilot who crash-lands in 2022 and is forced to team up with his 12-year-old self (a star-making turn from newcomer Walker Scobell) to save the future.

The smart-alec repartee between the two versions of Adam, large and small, fails to conceal the fact that they find each other deeply irritating. But, it becomes clear, both are still grieving the unexpected death of their father (Mark Ruffalo), a scientist whose genius may be the key to unravelling the chaos to come, as well as unwittingly causing it in the first place. The high-concept plot is held together more by force of will (and some decent special effects) than by logic, but the core of this engaging, kid-friendly Netflix production is a big-hearted tale of broken families made good.

• The Adam Project is only on Netflix