"...How Do We Distinguish Between Illusion And
Reality..."
Trying to describe Jaco Van Dormael's 2009 film "Mr.
Nobody" is like trying to get a handle on a bowl of the mama's primo
spaghetti - difficult but ultimately worth the tasty struggle.
OK - here goes. It's February 2092 and a decrepit Nemo Adult
(Jared Leto) wakes up in a hospital bed he doesn't recognize. At 117 he's the
oldest man in the world - the last mortal to die of old age (before genetic
advancements led to humans enjoying quasi-immortality - a future where endless
renewal of cells has even removed the need for sex). Like some fascinating
exhibit people want to prod - there's a future-world shrink (Alan Corduner) sat
opposite him in an all-white boiler suit with a tattooed face like a Maori
warrior and a tiny monitoring device flying between them like a electronic
hummingbird. The irritatingly soothing shrink is prodding the old man's
thoughts but Nemo seems to have conflicting memories about his past - three women
he loved - three wives - with children from each - Anna Adult (Diane Kruger),
Elise Adult (Sarah Polley) and Jean Adult (Linh Dan Pham). But first he
remembers his birth and his parents - his eccentric English father (Rhys Ifans)
- a weatherman who slipped on a leaf on Butterfly Lane and fell instantly in
love with the woman who came over to help him (Natasha Little).
Now back to old Nemo again - this time awoken on his 2092
deathbed by a young news reporter who seems to have genuine empathy for him and
his life story (English actor Daniel Mays). Talking to the reporter brings up
dreams of drowning in a car - awaking in a bathtub only to be assassinated by a
man with a silencer - being held in artificial hibernation on board a
spacecraft that is falling apart - a unicorn walking through a sea of laughing
children - those spirits 'not yet born' - then touched by the angels of
oblivion who put a mark on your mouth (only they forgot Nemo).
And as a child Nemo seems to have the gift of seeing the
future before it happens - girls he will marry - a recurring dream of a train
arriving and departing with his mum leaving her father and Nemo on the platform
- him running after it and her... Then there are holidays on Mars with speed
motorbikes and pop songs filling bizarre flashback sequences where he's faking
suicide on the kitchen floor as an angst-ridden teenager. Blooming love comes
his way too as he falls in love to Otis Redding. He crashes on a motorbike and
seems to die. And on it goes to Nemo as Jared Leto - the young adult -
struggling with his oddness and his predictions and the consequences of the
choices he makes...
The thing about "Mr. Nobody" is the sheer
audacious breath of it - half of the time you're grappling to work out where
the dots are connected - and in the end it does all seem to make some sort of
crazy sense. The mixing and editing of different time periods (Forties,
Seventies, the future), themes on time, love, what life means and how family
makes and breaks you - all of it is truly brilliant stuff. A shot of a teenage
Nemo (Toby Regbo) lying on a bed in Canada pans back out through his window to
the city he's in until it pulls back further to being a picture of that
building in that city on a postcard on a table. "Mr. Nobody" is that
kind of mind-bending film. But what gives the movie a beating heart is that
amidst all this cleverness are moments of genuine charm and loveliness - a
Director's mind at work that is thinking hard about what life and love and
adolescence really mean. You may not have a clue what's going on at times but
what a wonderful journey to make. And the space sequences are impressively big
budget too...
Even across different realities and set pieces (indoors and
out) - the BLU RAY picture quality is beautiful. It's defaulted to 2.35:1
aspect ratio (lines top and bottom of the screen) but even stretched to full
aspect looks sumptuous. The 5.1 DTS Master Audio gives the Audio a real punch
too. The lone extra is a "Making Of" - but at least it's indepth -
featuring interviews with Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Belgian Director Jaco Van
Dormael, Thomas Byrne (child Nemo), Juno Temple (Nemo's teenage girlfriend),
Renault Alcard (Assistant Cameraman), the Director of Photography - and all of
it combined with location footage and discussions about design. It's very good.
There are no subtitles though.
More visionary than Brad and Angelina's psychic, more
buffed-up than Vladamir Putin's physical trainer and madder than the Tasmanian
Devil on a tab of acid - "Mr. Nobody's is utterly extraordinary filmmaking
- a visual and storytelling 5-star masterpiece.
Check it out soon - and maybe even watch it again after - so
you can work out what the Hell was going on
