"Mr. Nobody" (Directed by Jaco Van Dormael, 2009) Review

Jaco Van Dormael's "Mr. Nobody" is the best film of 2009, and nobody in the US saw it. Though the film (shot in English no less) received wide release in Europe, it was deemed "too smart" for American audiences and never got a single screening here. This is a travesty because "Mr. Nobody" is one of the finest examples of a nonlinear narrative ever shot. It explores philosophical topics from the Big Bang theory to the Superstring theory to the concept of parallel universes. It manages to intimately follow a protagonist from the moment of his conception, through numerous lives, for 118 year. It thoughtfully and elegantly explores the themes of birth, childhood, marriage, love, divorce, depression and death. With its beautifully layered exploration of moral and philosophical themes, "Mr. Nobody" makes "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" look like "Gnomeo and Juliet."

At the start "Mr. Nobody" stems from the tales that Nemo Nobody, the last "true" human living in the year 2092, tells his doctor. From these stories we spring backwards to multiple points in Nemo's 118 years of life. He tells of his childhood in an idealized 70s Britain where love is always around the corner. He tells of both teenage years in Vancouver and Britain, which begin a pattern of his deliberately contradictory stories. Though Nemo has only been married once, his wife seems to be three different women at different moments in the story. In one life he becomes a rich author and has two perfect children. In another, his wife suffers crippling depression and can't connect with him. And in the third, Nemo spends years searching for his one true love, only finding her moments before their death on a space station, revolving around a collapsing star. Nemo dies multiple times in his stories, yet versions of him always continue.

Though the story doesn't unfold in a manner anywhere close to the traditional plot structure western audiences have become accustomed to, it moves naturally and dreamlike through the multiple lives Nemo Nobody claims to have lived. His stories are fantastical and the locations unreal yet the relationships he shares are honest and striking.

Jared Leto, as Mr. Nobody himself, delivers an emotionally resonant, tour-de-force performance, as he inhabits twelve different versions of the character, ranging from 19 to 118 years old. Diane Kruger, Sarah Polley, and Rhys Ifans offer up strong supporting work. But it is the young actors, Toby Regbo and Claire Stone, who bring vividly to life the heated intimacy of young passion and heart-wrenching pain of their separation.

Though the story doesn't begin to really make sense till the end, it quickly establishes itself to be a fantastical and wonderful exploration of what it means to be a human and the difference in what is and what should be truly important in the world.