I saw the preview for Mr. Nobody while watching a movie at home then immediately added it to my queue. It seemed to have an intriguingly complex narrative and starred Jared Leto as the titular character so I was expecting an engagingly complex story and solid acting. The movie appeared to be about a very elderly man looking back on his life, but he appeared to be aware of living the same life in multiple universes, i.e. alternate timelines. If you follow me frequently, you know that at some point this year, I decided that I was too old for anything with even the slightest whiff of time travel. Well, when I watched this movie, my disdain for time travel began to germinate.
Remember how enjoyable Helen’s Sliding Doors and the titular character of Run Lola Run were—Mr. Nobody is the opposite of it. I have to be interested in at least one of your storylines and invested in your protagonist otherwise I begin to disengage and mentally check out of the whole process. The story is less about the old man as it is about a little boy inappropriately forced to make a decision then his life initially branches out into three different possible storylines. The scenes are not organized chronologically or linearly along the lines of each story so it took awhile for me to figure out that *gasp* there were further ways that the story diverged and branched out yet again into almost ridiculous possibilities, which is the crucial factor that absolutely lost any shred of credibility.
I enjoy premise fiction, which is defined as a fictional work that explores realistic reactions to an extraordinary event. It is basically a drama with sci fi elements. It is possible that the filmmakers did not intend Mr. Nobody’s story to be premise fiction, but it is. The story hinges on the main character experiencing multiple lives, and the most important aspect of his life is love. Even though he has three possible women who become his wife in different time lines, the movie clearly believes that only one is his soul mate. He exists in those multiple timelines in order to determine the best route to insure a life with her. The problem is that the titular character literally feels like Mr. Nobody. He is a Ken doll that you can swap different outfits, jobs and locations, but is essentially empty inside. He is only a projection of the filmmaker’s whims. The movie never depicts his essence as an individual that anyone would fall in love with in any of the time lines. He is a cipher. It is a strange movie because even though the protagonist is a man, the women are more interesting and complex; however I suspect that if this filmmaker got his hands on Lola or Helen. He wouldn’t know what to do with such a strong character. The scenario should change, but some characteristic about the protagonist should be timeless.
Mr. Nobody seems to be saying that the most crucial characteristic unique to this person is whom he loves, but at some level, he should be recognizable across every time line. Loving a person does not make you a person. A person is somebody before he or she begins to love another. While the distance between a pool cleaner and a manufacturing executive isn’t that far, becoming an astronaut is. How did you stay young over a large expanse of time that space travel is affordable and a feasible option? There should be immutable characteristics of the protagonist that cross over, and it is up to the writers to determine which characteristics they will be. A random fear of argyle patterns does not make a compelling person.
For Mr. Nobody or any movie with an unusual narrative to work, the movie should still be as compelling if it was organized in a conventional, linear narrative and communicate a character’s story fully to the viewer even if it does not give all the answers and details to the viewer. Instead as I began to understand this movie, I grew increasingly less enchanted. By the end of the movie, in retrospect, I should be able to see the link between the young man and the old man regardless of how many pick your adventures routes that he takes. They should all add up to the same person at the end, at least psychologically or emotionally, but they don’t, and ultimately, this lack of credible character development makes this movie a failure and a complete waste of time. To delve into the nature of human existence, you should be able to create a three dimensional human being and really know a person. Yes being raised in a different country by different people and meeting different people changes you, but there are some things that never change about an individual. If you spend any significant amount of time around people, you begin to learn and love the details that don’t matter or can’t be seen as special by anyone other than a person who loves another, but the movie doesn’t love the protagonist because it does not bother to create those special moments.
Mr. Nobody is in love with exploring different genres and making multiple movies as if it is the last shot that the filmmakers will have to a make a sci fi movie, a gangster movie, etc. The tone of the movie veers wildly depending on the story line. The movie may even be paying homage to Terry Gilliam with the futuristic storyline. This movie makes Looper seem like a spare, art house film. Its vision is promiscuous, undisciplined and communicates nothing nuanced or insightful about the human experience except with its intriguing, but brief exploration of the stepfather and Anna, which were the most organically compelling moments in the film. There was something real about the way that people try to impose roles on children and project their faults on to others so they can live with them, and how regardless of all their strenuous efforts, those labels and issues just wash away like water off of a duck’s back.
When I later read a summary of Mr. Nobody on Wikipedia, I realized that I possibly missed a crucial revelation that made me hate the movie even more. The movie is two hours twenty-one minutes long, and I started to fall asleep and mentally gave up after one hour thirty-six minutes. I’ve watched The Turin Horse, a Russian, mostly silent, black and white art house film and was riveted, and a three-hour German film without blinking or going to the bathroom. This movie is the cinematic equivalent of Dallas’ series finale. It isn’t worth the effort. The only reason to watch it is to see Juno Temple in another surreally outstanding performance. She is so off kilter good that she always scares me a little.
Unless you enjoyed Under The Silver Lake, don’t bother watching Mr. Nobody, but if you do end up watching and adoring Mr. Nobody, then definitely see Under The Silver Lake and start searching for other movies that I hated because we’re opposites in taste. I’ll be happy for you. No judgment.