The Zero Theorem (2014)

Really Surprised!

Lack of good storyline.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

I have watched Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys (1995) and Brazil (1980), both of which I found very visually striking and with a good, engaging story. But this newer effort by the director gave me mixed opinions. A half of me says that the film has something wrong with the pacing. As a viewer, I was impatient for the story to really pickup but never really does so to last second of the film. But another half of me says that perhaps the gradual pacing of the story has something to do with the emphasis on the main character played by Christoph Waltz, who has been living a dull, mechanical life. Maybe the film is suppose to work in way that the viewer gets to experience this feeling. Whatever the original intentions of the film are, currently, the audience seems to be divided as well on whether to place this as good or bad. It holds a 6.1 rating in IMDb (as of March 3, 2018), which is fair, a 50 % on Rotten Tomatoes' Tomatometer, and a score of 50 on Metacritic which indicates mixed reviews.Though the middling reception, considering Terry Gilliam's positive track record as a director, the strength of the visual aspect, the timelessness of the questions it asks, and generally the sense of ambiguity, The Zero Theorem is the looks like the kind of movie that can garner more appreciation through the years. But like the main character, Qohen, it has to prove the seemingly unprovable as of now and be able to connect and grow with its audience. A rewatch of the movie can get this started.

A more skilled director and writer could have presented the exact same ideas with a more comprehensible and interesting plot and without all the LSD involved. However, our friend Terry decides to camouflage the simplicity of the real message with a psychedelic atmosphere and bizarre characters. The audience is persuaded by this overdose of visual stimulation into thinking that the meaning is more complex than they thought, erroneously increasing the intellectual value of the film.

Saying that this is a Terry Gilliam film tells you a lot about what to expect: offbeat and sometimes downright weird visuals, nonlinear dialog, an obscure plot (if there even is one). Not to everyone's taste though.Qohen (Christoph Waltz) has been tasked by Management (a barely recognizable Matt Damon, who's certainly an odd choice for a Terry Gilliam script -- he's just too down-to-earth) to prove the Zero Theorem, which means that everything there is will add up ultimately to nothing. Working on the 'proof' seems to consist of a video-game-gone-wild where he must move blocks of preset equations around in a vast landscape of similar blocks. But every one of his attempts just ends in frustration and feeds his natural tendency to spiritual malaise and depression. Or something. It all seems rather aimless, which Management seemed to know all along. Young Bob (Lukas Hedges) drops in occasionally to stimulate Qohen intellectually, and Bainsley (Melanie Thierry) comes by for stimulation on the emotional++ side. But ultimately our hero still seems to prefer isolation.For the sets, think Blade Runner as rendered by a cartoonist on LSD. There's occasional absurdist humor, which is all in the backgrounds -- such as when Bob and Qohen are sitting in a town plaza where a phalanx of 'Forbidden' signs disallows every conceivable kind of activity appropriate for a community park, or even inactivity. And we get some genuinely arresting visuals along the way, such as the Virtual Reality beach of lurid colors where Qohen spends down time, or the giant black hole that haunts his dreams. These lead to a VR-within-VR fantasy scene where Qohen and Bainsley cling naked to each other while falling in to the same black hole.If you want linear storytelling, this isn't it. At the end I was left wondering what the point was -- any kind of point. The supposedly deep philosophical questions raised about life, the universe, human connections don't seems to go beyond sophomoric meandering. For the sake of the visuals though, I give this 5/10.

There is a zero theorem in math but it has nothing to do with the zero theorem of this movie. Here the zero theorem is an idea that leads to the end of the universe via a black whole gobbling everything up. I believe. At any rate the science here is just window dressing. What counts is the ever quirky sets and wandering story line made entertaining by some fine acting and surprising twists and revelations in the inimitable Terry Gilliam style.I was particularly mesmerized by Mélanie Thierry who plays Bainsley, a stylish hooker with a hankering for older men (QED). She is after partially mad scientist Oohen Leth played with a steely estrangement by Christoph Waltz. I also liked Lucas Hedges' Bob who slyly wisecracks his way amid the clutter and chaos. Yes, the infamous Terry Gilliam clutter is in full evidence, white pigeons, screens on their sides, clashing art work on the walls, dark staircases, weird people, electric (?) cables the size of fire hoses, rats, bizarre costumes and much, much more. And of course the thousand and one sight gags. The one I liked best (and we see it two or three times) comes to us through Oohen Leth's computer screen. It's a certain kind of Website displaying Mélanie Thierry with a strategically placed heart-shaped sign reading "Enter Here." (You have to see it to get the joke or have a saucy imagination.) Matt Damon has a cameo as "Management," "Bob's" all powerful father. Yes, there are some corporate jokes throughout as well as science gone amuck hilarity or attempted hilarity. I think this is one of Gilliam's best but it is the performances by the actors that really carry this and perhaps that's a good thing in a Terry Gilliam movie.--Dennis Littrell, author of the movie review book, "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote"