Mr. Nobody

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. (08/04/2010)

From the very beginning, the film pretends to be so artsy and clever that it stumbles on its own feet as it progresses, and falls short in its attempt to captivate the viewer on several fronts at once. I can't deny, of course, that it's beautifully and originally shot, that Jared Leto is a phenomenal actor, and that all the amazing shots have something to them in the overall context, but other than that, the film, with its complex composition and constant interweaving of several storylines, completely messed with my head and spouted one question mark after another, it failed to awaken any other feelings in me, and its precise cynicism didn’t allow me to experience the story of the main characters in any deeper way, which was probably a necessity in this case. Maybe the strength of the film would affect me more with a second viewing, but to be honest I hardly have the courage to do that. (04/25/2013)

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. (07/20/2010)

This is nothing more than stylishly directed nonsense. Maybe it's just a message for those who claim that the king has luxurious golden embroidered clothes adorned with jewels. Unfortunately, the king is naked and the only remarkable thing about him is how proudly he displays his nudity and pretends to have depth of thought when he is as flat as a sheet of paper. Overall impression: you can't go into the negative, so three underlined zeroes. (06/10/2014)

I'm not surprised that Jaco van Dormael hasn't made and won't make another film on such a large scale. Despite the philosophical and conceptual attempt to transcend the universe, his monument is filled with the unique and intimate, endless power of joy and sorrow. The author must have poured his soul into both versions, because I haven't seen so many impactful encounters, embraces, farewells, or insights for a long time, each pushing the narrative and mood forward by a significant margin. It's not a perfect work, nor is it all-embracing; its length, especially in the director's cut, unnecessarily extends into places where nothing new is found. But there are so many electrifying connections in the right places that it is worth seeing for dreamers and cynics alike. (08/04/2020)