Wednesday November 26th On Demand. The Thanksgiving break brought some time to try and catch up on some titles. I saw the preview for this film awhile and was intrigued. What's not to be intrigued about? It's directed by Monty Python legend, Terry Gilliam, and stars Christoph Waltz, Tilda Swinton and a cameo by Matt Damon. The film is set in some kind of ironically Orwellian pseudo-dystopic society (I don't know how else to describe it, but it's similar to Brazil) where Waltz plays Qohen Leth a programmer who "crunches entities" for the corporate conglomerate Mancom. Qohen is a little off but he's the top "entities cruncher" that Mancom has but he no longer wants to come into the office to work and has repeated psych evaluations in an attempt to work at home which fail as he's deemed healthy to work but he gets the use of a Shrink-ROM (Swinton), a digital psychiatrist. You see, Qohen's problem is that he's waiting for a call from a higher power that bring him happiness and validate his existence. He's obsessed with the call.
His boss Joby, David Thewlis, invites him to a party where he can meet "Management." Qohen is socially inept and he runs into Management (Damon) but he botches up the meeting. As he's trying to leave the party he meets Bainsley (played by the lovely Melanie Thierry) who seems to take a shine to Qohen after she saves him from choking on an olive but he's scared off because he's such a social misfit. The next day work, Joby informs him that he has been chosen by Management for a special assignment and he will get to work at home. His assignment will be to solve the Zero Theorem, a mathematical formula of mythic proportions. Joby reveals to Qohen that he himself was tasked to solve the Zero Theorem once but he burnt out and was promoted to supervisor.
Despite his lack of social graces, Qohen strikes up a friendship with Bainsley and Bob (Lucas Hedges), the teenage son of management. Qohen is given an AI suit by Bainsley so that they can get together online. One day Bob shows up and tells Qohen that the Zero Theorem is i supposed to prove that life is meaningless. Upset, Qohen goes online with Bainsley and wants to elope with her but Bainsley disconnects suddenly and the suit is damaged. We learn that Qohen had a regulary type life with a wife and home but his obsession with the call eventually destroyed it. Bob repairs the AI suit and Qohen connects with Bainsley only to find out she's a webcam stripper, leaving Qohen a bit depressed. Eventually Bainsley visits Qohen and tells him that she's in love with him (despite the fact she was hired by Mancom to befriend him) and wants to elope, Bob even encourages him to go but he doesn't.
Not sure I'd agree with that decision.
Qohen finds out the Bob is in declining health and tries to help him when he passes out. Here he learns that Mancom has been under surveillance since he started working at home. In a rage, Qohen smashes the cameras and destroys his computer, prompting Mancom to send employees to remove Bob and Joby stops by to let him know that he got fired as a result of his actions. Qohen puts on the AI suit and is rendered unconscious by an overload. Now Qohen is in the Neural Net Mancive where Management informs him that he was chosen for this assignment because he devoted himself to a call that would give him the meaning of life, thus making his life meaningless. Enraged, Qohen starts destroying the Mancive and jumps into a black hole (???). Qohen now appears on a beach in the same virtual world where he hung out with Bainsley. He hears Bainsley calling him and we are left to wonder if he's going to join her or if this all a dream in his head.
So Terry Gilliam is not for everyone. I did not understand a lot of this but I understood the point of Qohen's quest for meaning left his life meaningless. I'm still not sure that I liked this but I definitely didn't not like it. I kept thinking i should watch it again to see if i missed anything but I think I'd still feel the same way. Zero Theorem is not as dark as Brazil but it's just as bizarre. The color and visuals are pretty spectacular and the acting is brilliant but unless you're a avid fan of Gilliam or you're a film connoisseur, this may not be for you. There's a lot of background stuff that doesn't make sense and I'm still not sure why Bob had to succumb to bad health. Was it supposed to mean something? Was there a metaphor I missed? Did Qohen die from the overload and what happened afterwards were his dying thoughts? Maybe I should've watched Brazil before I watched this. I don't know this but I feel as if this film may have run close to 3 hours but it got cut down to 107 minutes and maybe some of the questions I had were explained. Or maybe not. The thing is, Gilliam's film are usually not very mainstream so he's not making films for the mass audience.
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