Mr. Nobody

Saw Mr. Nobody (thanks, Nick!) It was one of those mind-fuck films that are willfully obscure, the fun being not in the plot or the characters but in the teasing out of what actually happened, the settling of the contradictory stories made significant by the invocation of quantum theory and the chaotic nature of life as symbolized by the butterfly effect. For such a film, it's not easy to say what happened, but here is what I believe happened anyway: we are listening to Nemo, the last man to die in a world where death is a curable condition, talk about his life up to that point. From a young age, we learn, he has always been able to predict the future but in this film's interpretation of physics the future is not yet set. We see all kinds of visual metaphors for this notion: branching and joining train tracks, stories being edited and rewritten, and of course the world "butterfly" sprinkled about everywhere (although if I must be very picky (and I must) the butterfly effect suggests only that the future is very difficult to predict, which is different from being impossible to predict, you know.)

Anyway, we have old Nemo recalling young Nemo predicting his own forking future, personified by three girls who he will wind up married to depending on his choices. As an old man, he keeps waking up from literally dreaming of death. Water is a recurrent symbol for death and destruction but, as a young Nemo angrily tells his mother, he loves water. So, first lesson: sometimes it's kind of a relief to die.

Another lesson: sex scenes are very boring after a while. In one version of his life Nemo is in teenage love with this girl and they fuck like rabbits. I think it's supposed to be sort of a cute and pure expression of love but after a while I began remarking to myself "ah, I see they're at it again." On that note, the acting and filming is alright. The film never lets you follow a life-story long enough to build an emotional connection and no sooner are you getting to know some woman Nemo's shacking up with than you're back in the future, with Nemo is old-man makeup, talking to a man whose Maori tattoos clearly say "PSY." The film is frequently too clever for its own good. I enjoy a good puzzle as much as anyone else but please don't drag in fancy physics concepts as window dressing to your drama because it adds nothing to the drama and frequently films get the physics wrong in some way anyway.

Anyway, the film is not as bad as my spleen-venting in the previous paragraph makes it sound. There's delicious opera and slow motion explosions and calm voices explaining complex ideas to us. It's really a knotty little romp of a film, full of twists and turns. I really enjoyed the film, even as I picked at it a little. It's a good film for inducing spirited discussions.