Possible Worlds (2000)

Don't Believe the Hype

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It's one of those extremely rare highly intelligent and original movies. Visually excellent to a fault, but it's the story that dominates. It doesn't take very long for the movie to get quite complicated; it's a complex movie that requires a lot of thought, speculation and guessing - and that's part of the fun with movies like these. And when it seems that no ending in the world could possibly make everything previous add up - it does. The ending connects everything neatly. (That is, if you "get" it.) Plus, the script is "fair" and gives the viewer clues as to what is really going on with the main character. The film makes so much sense on so many levels. There are many interesting ideas presented; one could analyze this movie and the ideas it presents for hours.The last scene of the movie will confuse some people but is actually rather simple: the main character is dreaming his last dream - of sitting on the beach with his wife, watching the ocean - and when a light appears on the horizon that light is the man's brain giving a signal on the machine that is keeping his brain alive. And when the light extinguishes, the man says "thank God", commenting on his own death; he is relieved that his bizarre existence is finally coming to an end. It is coming to an end because his wife decided to let the machine be switched off so that the brain can finally cease to live.The film is probably the best in a series of excellent movies that came out around the late 90s, and that deal with reality: "eXistenZ", "Dark City", the Spanish "Open Your Eyes", "The 13th Floor" (1999), "Fight Club" and "Eyes Wide Shut". Time will make classics out of all of them.This is one of the best movies I have seen in years, and certainly one of the most thought-provoking. If you're looking for something other than the usual overrated, pointless, and dull Oscar-winning trash, check this one out. Good soundtrack.

Science Fiction is hooey, and so too is multi-dimensionality, which is, from what I've heard, the latest theoretical craze in philosophy. These elements may be highlighted in "Possible Worlds"; they can be used to categorize the film. I, contrarily, would rather not fix my viewpoint on "Possible Worlds" while referring to film texts (science fiction), or to texts of philosophy (multi-dimensionality).I enjoyed Possible Worlds as a whole, and my explanation of what made it enjoyable is inexact. There was a unearthly mood to it, a friction of impossible magnitudes. And then there was the score. Peter Gabriel's contribution mystified "Possible Worlds," a necessity, we may say in hindsight. The film's captured images similarly aided mystification. I didn't at all get the feeling the director was slipping in pictures from a "nature calendar." It seemed "Possible Worlds'" imagery was that of solitary reflection, they were of the detached mind, when memory overrules whatever continuity we're surrounded by. Individuals sat alone, in their minds.I suppose "Possible Worlds" isn't an everyman's film. And it should not be. It should not find a category whereby it becomes easily approachable.

You will know in the first ten minutes if this film is for you or not. Possible Worlds explores themes of the mind in a science-fiction setting. A man seems all knowing at the start of the film, and impresses his interviewers by quickly calculating the solution to several complex problems posed to him, all without a calculator. Later we find out he is not super intelligent, but retains memories from all his other selves in parallel universes. I suppose at least one of his alternate selves must have gone through the interview already, so he just pulls on that memory.He also explores a relationship with the same woman, who is strikingly different in each of the parallel worlds. In one, she is loving and compassionate, in another scattered and distant. The story is never showy, gimmicky, or clichéd, unlike what we have come to expect from Hollywood.Visually, there are not many films better than this. Each scene is so beautiful it's almost as though every inch of the scene was meticulously composed by hand. Some scenes lingered without dialogue, and I wanted them to stay longer just so I could appreciate the scene more. The film leaves a definite mood long after the credits end.

A stunning film. Thought-provoking, funny and engaging. The opening credits pulled me and I was left breathless at the end. The cinematography is amazing, and works extremely well with the plot. Some plot summaries have made the storyline sound like Sliding Doors, but it is a wholly different movie. Possible Worlds deals with several issues (the main one being alternate lives) and has many sub-plots, all of which fall together wonderfully. Go for the eye-candy, the philisophical dialouge, the acting, the directing or the plot--but see it!