Mr Nobody

Jared Leto is a one of a kind actor. I knew him first as the lead singer for 30 Seconds to Mars. He really embraced (and still does) the punk rock angst that isn't really mainstream, but at the same time, he's not mainstream either. I knew him as the emo hair cut guy from the band but soon realized that the guy was an actor as well, starring in critically acclaimed movies like Requiem for a Dream. And for a while, that was it. He wasn't a very well known actor and the roles that he did take were more art house movies like Requiem.

But then in 2013, Leto made a resurgence after about 4 years of not doing film and did Dallas Buyers Club, a role that landed him an Oscar.

Suddenly, Jared Leto was a hot commodity, and well known one at that. Its fair to say that if Dallas Buyers Club hadn't happened, I'm not sure if Leto would have been picked for the role of the Joker in Suicide Squad. Whether or not you think that's a good thing or not, the man is considered a good actor but at the same time is very selective in the films that he does and the films he doesn't do.

Knowing the kind of film that I've seen Jared Leto in before, Mr. Nobody is an obvious choice of a movie he would make.

Mr. Nobody has a very confusing beginning because its a series of abstract images and Jared Leto dying a bunch of times. Then finally Jared Leto with both really convincing prosthetics and really fake looking prosthetics appears and we are introduced to Nemo Nobody (played by Leto). Mr. Nobody is an old man in the future who is the last mortal human alive. Apparently in the future we are so genetically advanced that people don't die through natural causes and they don't grow old. They also have genetically paired pigs for some reason... yeah the future in the movie is pretty weird.

But Mr. Nobody has no known past and he has become an icon of the media because they are going to broadcast his death on live television.

Before he dies though, he is interrupted by a young journalist who wants to know his story. He then begins to tell a very confusing story of his life and all the different routes he could have taken and at the same time took.

Maybe its giving too much away, but the movie goes in a couple directions, all stemming from a decision Nemo is forced to make as a child between living with his father or his mother.

The cool part is that the movie shows how his life could be different if certain things changed, or he made a certain choice. Its not just two different timelines, its two timelines that delve off into different timelines.

This is putting the movie in too simple of terms, but the best way to describe the direction these timelines go is based off of which woman Nemo falls in love with.

The movie is actually pretty clever in how they foreshadow the different routes Nemo could take.

In one timeline, Nemo falls in love with his step sister Anna who is eventually played by Diane Krueger. In another timeline, he falls in love with a severely depressed woman named Elise (eventually played by Sarah Polley). And then in another timeline, he ends up with a woman named Jeannne (eventually played by Linh Dan Pham) and that life brings him in a totally different direction.

The cool part about this movie is that they go back and forth between the different lives that Nemo could have. You never really figure out which one is the correct one because I guess in a way, they're all the route he took and all the route he didn't take at the same time. Yes it is that kind of movie and it is confusing.

On top of it all, they start throwing in live action recreations of Nemo's novel and a timeline where he's in a coma for the entire time and it all gets a little bit confusing. However, if you're paying attention, it is a really interesting concept.

I guess my only problem with it is that they spend a lot of time with certain timelines and not on others.

They spend a lot of time on Nemo and Anna but not as much time really developing the relationship between Nemo and the other women he potentially falls in love with. Are we suppose to see that relationship as the one that is the one he was destined to have? Is she just another one of the many timelines that he could have had?

On top of that, the movie has a little bit of a problem with blowing a lot of smoke up its own ass.

There's a couple of scenes where Jared Leto is explaining the physics behind different timelines and I think they were trying to describe it the way someone would if they were watching an episode of the Cosmos with Neil Degrass Tyson. But something about it just comes off as pretentious and just makes me doubt all the science behind it. Maybe it has some legs to stand on, but I just didn't always buy it. On top of that, I wasn't sure how much of a lot of the theories they were talking about really connected to the story.

Best example: Nemo finds his long lost lover but for a really convoluted reason, she says I need time before we get together. She writes down her phone number on really easy to mess up paper and the paper gets messed up by a rain drop. Now there's this big convoluted answer to the reason why that rain drop hit that exact point and its all apparently because Jared Leto bought a cheaper pair of pants?

Its stuff like that that just makes me feel like this movie is trying to be more self important than it actually is. It would have been one thing for coincidence and/or fate to ruin his chances of finding his long lost lover but instead they try and make this a larger thing than it is.

I get it, time travel and different realities is a convoluted subject. I'm just saying don't make it more complicated than it needs to be.

Something really important to talk about in this movie is the performances.

The main one of course is Jared Leto as he has an interesting task of being the same character and yet creating a different character for each route the life of this same character takes him. While all the people he plays are Nemo Nobody, growing up with his father and being rejected by the woman he's in love with makes him a very different person. The same way living with his father and marrying that woman changes the entire dynamic. I think he is able to play those different characters very well and make them discernible enough that its easy to detect what timeline we're in once we have enough time to establish what each one means.

The one issue I have with him is the fact that this movie is a little more art than it is substance and this has Jared Leto having a lot of points where he's just standing looking into space. There are a couple of scenes where it is literally just seconds upon seconds of Leto starring at the screen, and then Diane Kruger starring at the screen, its a little jarring sometimes.

And there's another thing, I get that Jared Leto is in a band and he has to sport the emo cut, but I can't help but be pulled out when all I see is him starring into the camera and I feel like all I need to do is mute the sound and put on 30 Seconds to Mars and I'm watching one of their music videos.

And while I think Leto does a really good job in this film, especially considering that this is basically his movie, I think the real standout star of the movie is actually the kid who plays a younger version of him, Tony Regbo.

Surprisingly, the majority of the biggest deviations in the timeline happen while this kid is on screen and the first portion of the movie is actually focused more on him and his choices throughout the different timelines.

While I think Leto gave a really good performance, the real star of the show is Regbo for his portrayal of young Nemo.

The rest of the movie is a pretty creative. While its very much a piece of art as much as a narrative, I thought Mr. Nobody had a pretty comprehensive story that I was invested in.

While its probably not a movie that I will revisit for quite a while, I think it might be worth a second watch eventually.

I think the best comparison I could put to this movie is that it is very much in the same vein as Cloud Atlas.

I have reviewed Cloud Atlas on this blog twice because I feel like it needed a rewatch after I finished the book and because its a pretty convoluted movie.

Mr. Nobody seems to take a similar idea and really compartmentalize it to one individual. Now, I think they both take a concept that is already convoluted and make it even more confusing, but I think they do it in different ways.

Cloud Atlas focuses on a very abstract concept of the effect one person has one another across generations with some weird twinge of reincarnation in there. But Cloud Atlas I feel took that concept and made something very creative out of it. It has such a big scale and it went a long ways with it, maybe for the best, maybe for the worst.

Mr. Nobody took something as convoluted as different timelines and realities and made it something very personal. Instead of one person affecting the lives of another in different generations, Mr. Nobody focuses on one individual and points out the possibilities of one choice in our lives.

I can't really say which one is better for a couple reasons. While I get the same feeling from both of them, they do focus on two totally different sets of ideas and themes. And secondly, I haven't seen Cloud Atlas in a while and that is a long movie.

But I do know that if you've seen that and you like those really abstract ideas, Mr. Nobody might be a good fit for you. Its not a perfect movie, but I did have some fun with it, and I think it is worth checking out.

But what did you think of Mr. Nobody? Did it make sense to you? Did you enjoy it? Would you recommend it? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @cmhaugen24 as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

I'll leave you with this. If you don't know what I'm talking about when I talk about Jared Leto and his music video-like presence, here's a video of clips from Mr Nobody spliced with 30 Seconds to Mars music... not much of a difference. Enjoy!