Imagine waking up on a Chicago-bound train with no idea how you got there or why the unfamiliar young lady (Michelle Monaghan) next to you seems to know you, but by another name. That’s what happens to the character played by Jake Gyllenhaal here, and it’s not a story about amnesia, but something else entirely. Perhaps he, a pilot who fought in Afghanistan, doesn’t remember because it’s not real. Perhaps the next people he speaks to, after everything disappears, an Air Force captain (Vera Farmiga) and a government scientist (Jeffrey Wright) who appear on a video screen, will explain. I won’t, because it’s better not to know.
This sci-fi thriller, a first feature for its screenwriter, Ben Ripley, is the second for its director, Duncan Jones, whose film Moon also dealt with artificial intelligence, alienation, and trust, but in a much quieter way. It may remind viewers of movies like Inception or The Matrix, with its plot involving virtual worlds, but also Groundhog Day, in that way it craftily telescopes myriad variations of the same scenario into a concise narrative. (Oddly, Gyllenhaal starred in another movie in which time gets recycled, Donnie Darko.) Obviously, it’s no comedy, but it maintains a lighter feel than those other sci-fi films (or than Moon) while carefully maintaining an internal logic that leads to a fairly satisfying outcome.
IMDB link
viewed 3/23/11 at Rave UPenn [PFS screening with director Q&A] and reviewed 3/23/11 and 1/21/12
No comments:
Post a Comment