Mr. Nobody

Until about the middle the film was getting four stars, aiming at five if it managed to pull out a great ending. In the second half, however, it gets a bit too complex, and unnecessarily and pointlessly so given how simple the twist is. It’s nice to watch, the direction is top-notch (even though it’s a rip-off of a rip-off in its own way), but the idea gets stuck somewhere at the beginning of the journey. At times, it reminded me of an acquaintance who likes to quote Gandhi and “eruditely” speaks about Plato’s world of ideas, mixing in a drop of physical theories (about which I never heard and I suspect he made them up) and believes he’s very smart, even though his blog looks like the work of a basic school pupil. Mr. Nobody could have been a very good film, but for that it should have kept its feet more on the ground. I don’t regret watching it, but I believe it can’t offer anything to anyone (provided they don’t think it up themselves), because it doesn’t have anything. (20/07/2010)

A clever movie for average people? That’s what Chris Nolan is trying to do right now. Personally, I didn’t much like the director’s intention, but even I have to take my hat off to how he managed to combine dozens of inspirations into one functional whole. I had one story in my mind that Mr. Nobody draws on a lot (damn it!), but here they wrapped it in currently trendy sci-fi effects, but they left the fundamental basis and I was intrigued to see how they worked with the theme that I already saw somebody else wrestle with before. Quite interesting. And for those who didn’t understand how it ended. The answer to your question is... You choose. (16/07/2010)

Interesting use of music, interesting scenes, good performances, and great ideas, but all within something that's just a patchwork of ideas, held together only because from the beginning you feel it's something important. It’s not. This is simply a game for the viewer that doesn't lead to a successful conclusion. (01/10/2015)

How I love these "fated", biographical, and "life" movies... I don't want to go into the climax here, or address what made what sense and why -- because I had so many feelings and emotions (in something akin to Fincher's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) wrestling inside me for those two hours that any complaints about the cheapness, superficiality, or how Mr. Nobody desperately tries to be a film about everything, while being a thousand times warmed-over cliché about practically nothing, are completely beyond me. Jared Leto (whoever suggested him for the role deserves a golden figurine :)) rocks in a role not quite typical for him, but in an all the more interesting acting position(s). Okay, not to jinx it – I admit it was a bit overwrought at times, but that doesn't change the fact of how brilliantly narrated is was, how emotive, and how much heart it has :)) Damn, this movie got me :)), because it really has something to it. (05/08/2010)

I didn't quite understand what the poet meant by that. It is extremely rich in expressive means, with plenty of imaginative scenes and ambiguous characters, quality performances, and dreamy atmosphere. It is similar to "Odyssean" works like Cloud Atlas, but it doesn’t work as well. (26/04/2014)