With Jared Leto in the spotlight since winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, we take a look at his previous film before his role in Dallas Buyer’s Club.
Written and directed by Jaco Van Dormael, Mr. Nobody is an experimental and thought-provoking piece of art. In this sci-fi romance, Jared Leto portrays the life of 34-year-old Nemo Nobody, as well as his older 118-year-old self as the last mortal living in an immortal future.
“We cannot go back that’s why its hard to choose. You have to make the right choice,” Nemo narrates while he is being forced to choose which parent he will stay with after their decision to separate. “As long as you don’t choose, everything remains possible.”
The film skips forward and backward through time as we journey through his various stages of life and learn about the man stuck in tragedy and what his life would be with every different choice.
With little segments executed as an info show, Nemo discusses physical and metaphysical concepts such as string theory, feeling completely expository but still entertaining.
Mr. Nobody’s stories become irritating as they are contradicting and leave you more confused than you were with the prior scene. “I don’t get it,” the reporter tells Nemo in frustration. “Did Elise die or didn’t she? You can’t have had children and not had them.” It helps to have the journalist expressing the same thoughts the audience is feeling.
It’s a beautiful film—the specific choice of music and colors in every frame leaves you in awe. With three love stories, taking place within different ‘dimensions’ we see Nemo’s life with Anna, Elise, and Jean. The wives are dressed in certain colors as they each have a different effect in his life.
Diane Kruger and Sarah Polley’s performances are far from a bore. Along with the rest of the cast, the film sets out to have an all-around decent performance minus the on and off again british accents from several of the actors.
Full of flaws and beauty, Mr. Nobody is well worth the two-and-a-half hours of Jaco Van Dormael’s vision about the nature of love, life, chance, time and death.
