How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★☆☆☆ 8 September 2011
This article is a review of MR. NOBODY. |
“I often have this dream. In prehistoric times, I can hear you screaming. I chase the bear and you're not afraid anymore, but when I wake up, there's no bear... but you're still afraid. And I'm not a bear hunter. I'm an executive at a plant that manifactures photocopying machines that just quit his job. I don't dare to move, I don't live, whatever I do is a disaster. I would love to set out to chase the bear away and for you to not be afraid anymore,” Nemo Nobody (Jared Leto)
It’s a real shame this has gone straight-to-DVD; though flawed it is ambitious, and stunningly shot and designed in places. MR. NOBODY is about choices, and not to be trite, that’s what writer-director Jaco Van Dormael should have made. At just over 2 hours 20, it seems repetitive. There are elements of the spiritual (a baby choosing his parents), sc-fi (a 118 year old – the last mortal alive), physics (string theory) and the philosophical (existentialism). The film is about layers – layers of ideas, timelines and stories. Jared Leto’s Nemo Nobody is 118 years old in 2092, and the tale then zips backwards and forwards in time looking at past lives. It is emotional, as his parents’ marriage breaks up, his relationships succeed and fail, and people live and die on multiple occasions.
It’s a real shame this has gone straight-to-DVD; though flawed it is ambitious, and stunningly shot and designed in places. MR. NOBODY is about choices, and not to be trite, that’s what writer-director Jaco Van Dormael should have made. At just over 2 hours 20, it seems repetitive. There are elements of the spiritual (a baby choosing his parents), sc-fi (a 118 year old – the last mortal alive), physics (string theory) and the philosophical (existentialism). The film is about layers – layers of ideas, timelines and stories. Jared Leto’s Nemo Nobody is 118 years old in 2092, and the tale then zips backwards and forwards in time looking at past lives. It is emotional, as his parents’ marriage breaks up, his relationships succeed and fail, and people live and die on multiple occasions.
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As the narrative is so disjointed it forces you to concentrate to try and piece it together. A similar structure (but more satisfyingly done) can be seen in 21 GRAMS. Eventually instead of attempting to keep track of everything, it is best to let the film wash over you and I guess that’s where the repetition helps – the accounts are gently drummed into you, so you start to follow the threads that are necessary and just go with the other stuff. There are stories within stories, dreams, hallucinations; to the point where you question whether anything is real or all of it. Nemo is an inquisitive child who claims to be able to see into the future, and then his first grim choice rears its head after a tragedy befalls his father (played by Rhys Ifans), which triggers the end of his happy childhood. He is forced to make a decision to either live with one parent in England or move to America with the other. Then further actions trigger more paths he could go down in his romantic life with various women (Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham and Juno Temple). MR. NOBODY is a more grand SLIDING DOORS, an exploration of parallel universes.
This might have got five stars for entertainment had they jettisoned the whole 118 year old Leto, who is not a good enough actor to carry that off – it’s too comical (and not in a good way), someone more interesting than Leto had been cast, and the cheesy ending had been rethought. There is though energy in abundance and an apparent drive to make something epic and different.