The Zero Theorem (2013)
UK, 107 min, Rated 14A (ON) G (QC)
Reviewed 09/14, © Stephen Bourne, moviequips.ca
www.ofrb.gov.on.ca | www.rcq.gouv.qc.ca


Director: Terry Gilliam
Screenplay: Pat Rushin
Cinematography: Nicola Pecorini


SYNOPSIS:

"Set in a future London, THE ZERO THEOREM stars Academy Award winner Christoph Waltz as Qohen Leth, an eccentric and reclusive computer genius plagued with existential angst. He lives in isolation in a burnt-out chapel, waiting for a phone call which he is convinced will provide him with answers he has long sought." - zerotheoremfilm.com

REVIEW:

Christoph Waltz faces the distractions of a dysfunctional future, determined to learn the meaning of life from a long-awaited phone call, as disconnected London-based corporate programmer Qohen Leth in director Terry Gilliam's surprisingly boring 2013 sci-fi drama. The Zero Theorem co-stars Mélanie Thierry as Leth's persistent love interest Bainsley, and features Lucas Hedges, David Thewlis, Tilda Swinton and Matt Damon.

Unfortunately, this picture is a just shiny, somewhat familiar bag of stunning false hope for movie fans. Just as Waltz's Leth obsessively aches to be told his life's purpose, a paying audience is forced to patiently grind through director Gilliam and screenwriter Rushin's tiring big screen indulgence for anything memorably compelling or entertaining enough to earn the price of admission. Sadly, unless you find potentially career-ending cinematic quicksand compelling, it never happens.

After a chance encounter at his supervisor's (played by Thewlis) house party and tasked by Mancom's enigmatic Management (Damon) for a special number-crunching project, The Zero Theorem, Qohen Leth eagerly trades his time-wasting commute through the rotting city's distracting chaos for the sanctuary of his converted chapel home. It's what he's wanted all along: To work undisturbed at home for months, near his phone, for a long-awaited voice expected to call him back at any moment with the meaning of life. Then, Bainsley drops by in a sexy nurse outfit and soon has Leth joining her on a virtual reality tropical beach.

Question: If a character in this movie's sci-fi future world doesn't want to miss a phone call, wouldn't they own a device or two of some kind that resembles a mobile phone? #awkward. Follow-up: If such mobile phone-like devices don't or can't exist for this sci-fi future world's character, shouldn't a reason for that exist in this movie? #doubleplusawkward. Yawn, never mind.

This feature flounders desperately for the most part, half-baked and without much notable purpose beyond the exercise of milking pretense and coy satire. It's not enough. In a good way, The Zero Theorem brings all the wonderfully jagged whimsy, peripheral subversive novelty and visual embellishment of a typical Terry Gilliam movie. Its depiction of Leth's highly specialized work as being little more than infantile gamer play is also hilarious at first. However, Ruskin's screenplay fails to provide anything for this film's otherwise proven talent to truly work with beyond sporadically flashing their screen presence and bare buttocks. In a bad way. This flick's a needless struggle on both sides of the 4th wall.

Perpetually blank-faced and bereft of believability, Waltz and Thierry are merely shepherded through each unrelenting - often pointless - scene of dull, disjointed dialogue and dubiously bipolar motivation here. Exploitive nudity aside, it's embarrassing to watch. Primary supporting players simply show up to look goofy, speak a few lines and then exit the frame without mattering. I'd love to say otherwise. For decades, I was a huge fan of Gilliam's movies. However, my proclaiming this latest effort is anything other than a bland and hollow Art House stinker compared to Brazil (1985), The Fisher King (1991), Twelve Monkeys (1995) or Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998) would be telling a pretentious fib.

Gilliam reportedly anointed The Zero Theorem the last in his satirical dystopian triptych of films that include Brazil and Twelve Monkeys. That might have been the case in theory, but definitely falls short in practice. Too bad. Unless you're a diehard fan of Christoph Waltz or all things Terry Gilliam, you're better off forgetting this dismal empty waste of time and talent ever happened. Reviewed 09/14, © Stephen Bourne, moviequips.ca.

The Zero Theorem is rated 14A by the Ontario Film Review Board, citing mild sexual references, coarse language, nudity in a non-sexual context, partial or full nudity in a brief sexual situation, scenes that may cause a child brief anxiety, or fear, embracing and kissing, mild sexual innuendo, and tobacco use, and is rated G by la Régie du Cinéma in Québec.


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showtimes: http://www.google.ca/movies?near=kanata-ottawa&hl=en&view=map&date=0

REFERENCE:

Website: http://zerotheoremfilm.com/
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rae7_O_6EtU
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2333804/
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zero_Theorem
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheZeroTheorem
Plus: http://www.thezerotheorem-movie.com/


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