The Zero Theorem hit blu-ray last week. Here's Andrew's review of Gilliam's latest.
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| "Damn. It's cold out here in space. Someone get me some hot chocolate." |
Terry Gilliam is back with The Zero Theorem and the results are stunningly beautiful to look
at! Widely considered to be the third
entry of his loosely formed dystopian science fiction triptych which began with
Brazil before continuing with 12 Monkeys, Gilliam has delivered one of
his prettiest and most exciting films in recent memory, more than atoning for
the sins committed by The Brothers Grimm and
Tideland. All of the tropes people have come to expect
from Gilliam’s canted, fish eye lensed worldview full of sensory overload
tinged with just a hint of wacky surrealism are there. Where his last few pictures contained a
distancing factor placing a wedge between the viewer and the material, The Zero Theorem draws you in almost
immediately. This could be Gilliam’s Blade Runner crossed with The Fountain in more ways than one.
Full of brilliant kaleidoscopic colors, dazzling
visual effects and some of the most inventive costume design of any of
Gilliam’s films, The Zero Theorem is
sheer eye candy. Gilliam’s trademark use
of wide angle lenses and canted angles are immediately recognizable, but in the
case of The Zero Theorem, Gilliam has
taken the cinematographic process a bit further than he has before. One of the most unique visual aspects people
will notice is the framing of the image, which is rounded at the edges. This is because Gilliam shot the film in the
newly developed Maxivision format, which resembled the look of an early
Vitaphone serial when theatrical projection wasn’t advanced enough to hide the
rounded edges of the projector. The
result looks something like a vintage throwback to a bygone era of film capture
with a modern, futuristic feel, in a way touching on the past and present
simultaneously. After shooting Tideland in Super 35 widescreen scope
only to have the image open matted due to mishandling of the material in the
US, Gilliam took the Kubrick route by vowing everyone would see The Zero Theorem as he saw it through
the viewfinder.
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| "What do you think? I matched my hair to this comfy chair?" |
In terms of acting, Christoph Waltz provides a
performance as you’ve never seen him before, not unlike Sean Gullette’s
paranoid mathematician (named Max Cohen incidentally) in Darren Aronofsky’s π. You’re drawn into the eccentric worldview of
Qohen and share with him his quirky fears of the world, women, and increasing
withdrawal from those around him. Matt
Damon, Peter Stormare and Tilda Swinton provide entertaining cameos adorned in
Gilliam’s bizarre futurist costume design, but the film is primarily a
character study of Christoph Waltz’s Qohen and his tightrope walk between
accepting life or rejecting it to dive further into cyberspace.
-Andrew Kotwicki