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Terry Gilliam has done many of the really thoughtful movies of the last twenty years and this one is no exception.
A dark movie about a dystopian world right around the corner! A mordent comedy in Gilliam's famous style. Imagine a future world in which people don't think but constantly carry around communication devices and constantly need to be entertained. Imagine a world where TV type ad's stalk your every step as you walk down the street, constantly trying to sell you stuff. Imagine a world were people go to parties constantly self-absorbed into their communication devices and no longer interact with each other. Imagine a world where people puff on imaginary cigarettes they don't light.
I would say Zero Theorem is about a world full of plastic people who identify with their 6G phones and need constant entertainment, who can't think, meditate or carry on meaningful conversations; nosey companies that follow you around and try to constantly sell you things; rich bosses who try to force you to work 24/7 and work yourself to death to make more money for them; and the search for a meaningful life in all of this din of screaming media. A study reported on NPR recently stated that people with 6G phones average spending 2 hours a day on them...
The lead character Qohen (played by Christolph Waltz, the Nazi in Inglorious Bastards, the dentist/bounty hunter from Django Unchained ) is a brilliant but extremely introverted programmer working on a computer powered by bicycle pedals that must be pedaled fast before he can enter code. He works for MANCOM. He refers to himself in the first person plural, like royalty, but he is the only sane person in this world. He wants nothing more than to work in isolation from a world constantly trying to invade his privacy. Q is mostly motivated by a desire to just attain a Samadhi like state of release from this world of constant commercial stimulation, symbolized by a black hole in space. Q wants a mystical phone call which will explain to him the meaning of his life. He writes "entities" using bricks of differential equations instead of the computer code we are more familiar with. He tries to get medical leave from his company from a group of three doctors of a type you will recognize from 12 Monkeys.
The company owner of MANCOM, (Matt Damon) gives him a seemingly impossible computer program to write which will solve the meaning of life, which he, Damon, will be able to capitalize, if found. He want to work Q until he goes crazy or solves these equations. Damon hooks Q up with a crack teen whiz programmer. You will recognize Q's boss played by David Thewlis as the same type of boss from "Brazil". When Q tries to quit the company owner tries to motivate/force him to work with sexy young a Lolita-like girlfriend played my Melanie Thierry. The owner tries to motivate him with a computerized Read-only-Memory psychiatrist (Tilda Swinton) who offers Q cookie-cutter psychobabble solutions to his quest for meaning.
As with "Brazil" , The "Imaginarium of DR Parnassus: and "12 Monkeys" the ideas and sight-gags come so fast you have to re-watch the movie so you don't miss anything. Be sure to the features at the end of the movie about shooting the movie on the cheap in Rumania, buying plastic costumes by the pound and wrangling rats.
Ignore many reviews here, pay attention to the subtle details. This is a truly great movie. Great acting from Waltz. And hopefully will be thought provoking, about work, overbearing bosses, omnipresent media companies and the meaning of life...
I loved the sun in the sky at the end!
Instead of the excessively intrusive government of "Brazil", this movie shows excessively intrusive commercial communication media companies of the not too distant future taking over the lives of all ....
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About Well Go USA
Well Go USA Entertainment is an Oscar-nominated theatrical and home entertainment label that specializes in bringing one of the best in action, genre, and independent films from the U.S. and around the world to North America. Well Go titles can be seen across a variety of platforms, including in theaters, on-demand, via DVD and Blu-ray and on television, as well as on mobile and connected devices through martial arts action channel Hi-YAH!.
Reviews with images
Surprise Actual Acting on Screen
There are very few movies that are made these days that can cause me to look inward. That brings me to question....... why and what if. This is one of those movies. Brilliantly written backed up by awesome acting (yes acting the actors are also very talented Something that is not fond these days. I was drawn in by the actors ability to have me question my own self,....... my ..."We". Watch more than once as there are also humorous things going on in the background scenes just off camera. Also to really understand this if you didn't the first go around after the 3rd viewing your life will have new meaning........ Just maybe, so give it some of your precious time....... Let me know how it effected you.......... or not. Have you been waiting for that phone call ?
Top reviews from other countries
Anna_26
Molto consigliato
Reviewed in Italy on September 2, 2023
Anna_26
Reviewed in Italy on September 2, 2023
Images in this review
Fraser Simons
Very underrated film, in my opinion.
Reviewed in Canada on January 10, 2017