Mr. Nobody (2009)
Directed by Jaco Van Dormael
Nemo Nobody leads an ordinary existence with his wife and 3 children; one day, he wakes up as a mortal centenarian in the year 2092.
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Other movies, like Sliding Doors and Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Blind Chance, have explored similar ideas, but Van Dormael pushes the conceit close to its breaking point, depicting parallel-lives-within-lives.
Naturally for a film this steeped in its own construction, there are oodles of film references, from Lars von Trier's "Europa" to "Harold and Maude" to, most bizarrely, "A Woman Under the Influence," in a squirm-inducing scene in which Polley's depressed housewife joins their daughter's birthday party and proceeds to make herself into an embarrassing dancing child.
Naturally for a film this steeped in its own construction, there are oodles of film references, from Lars von Trier's "Europa" to "Harold and Maude" to, most bizarrely, "A Woman Under the Influence," in a squirm-inducing scene in which Polley's depressed housewife joins their daughter's birthday party and proceeds to make herself into an embarrassing dancing child.
In some of these realms, writer-director Jaco Van Dormael's film is a fancifully high-concept weepie that, at its best, occasionally recalls the sweeping and heart-wrenching melodrama of Somewhere in Time and The Fountain .
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Naturally for a film this steeped in its own construction, there are oodles of film references, from Lars von Trier's "Europa" to "Harold and Maude" to, most bizarrely, "A Woman Under the Influence," in a squirm-inducing scene in which Polley's depressed housewife joins their daughter's birthday party and proceeds to make herself into an embarrassing dancing child.
A psychiatrist tries to unlock his mind with hypnosis, while a journalist tries to pry out his life story for the record but is left, à la the reporter in Citizen Kane, with more questions than answers about who this man really was.
In this cosmic, multi-dimensional, romantic take on "Little Big Man" (the film also resembles "Inception," Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," "Dark City" and even one scene from Leos Carax's "Pola X"), Jared Leto gives an exceptional performance as a man whose life spins out dependent upon his different choices, leading him to conclude that not making a choice leaves more possibilities.
The old man, played by Jared Leto in heavy Little Big Man makeup, is the last dying person, since everyone else in the future is “quasi-immortal” thanks to triumphs in stem-cell research.
Sandman” may be a Back To The Future homage, among many other homages.)
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Aside from allowing Dormael to play around with CGI and create a futuristic vision that seems lifted (with a smaller budget) straight from "The Fifth Element," there is actually no plot-driven basis for the film to be set in 2092 other than to give Nemo/Mr.
But viewers will likely be reminded of more linear commercial fare such as Sliding Doors or Run Lola Run, in which we see chance and choice create parallel or alternative outcomes for the character.