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)

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. (04/08/2010)

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)

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. (04/08/2020)

The most significant cliché wrapped in talk of space-time and causality, served in a Bollywood pompous three-pack. From my point of view, a bloated boring bubble which, after bursting, leaves nothing but a musty smell of sweet phrases and sly jokes about life and everything else. We can compare it to The Fountain, we can compare it to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we can compare it to The Butterfly Effect... regarding the first one on the list, Mr. Nobody lacks visually and in terms of acting, for the second his ideas are not good enough, and for the third he does not have the tension. A film that declares that life is a playground, but instead of playing, it pretends to be something it can't be. Thank you, not interested. (08/07/2010)