the discovery 2017
by
Charlie mcdowell
If there is Afterlife,then death wud lose its sting.Philip
larkin wud not have been so gloomy,and John Donne wud have not been as lethal.Suicides
wud have been actually painless,and even karma wud have meant quite something
different.Afterlife might have altered human consciousness in ways that cant be
imagined.
The Discovery dares to imagine a scenario in which Robert
Redford develops the concept of afterlife.This results in a spurt in the number
of suicides.Strangely enough,murders have not yet begun ,under the premise of
sending the victims to a better place.Robert’s son,Jason Segal,arrives at his
facility,all grimness and dourness,weighed down by the burden of his dad’s
discovery,perhaps,or maybe by his own inconsequence.There is a girl,Isla (rooney mara) who warms up to the
concept,and Jason seems inclined towards her.
During the course of experiments,plagued by sabotage,it is established
that the experiments are successful ,and that Afterlife is a an alternate plane
of existence.It is a real where one can visualise different versions of
life.This discovery cud result in a massive rise in number of suicides
,assisted deaths and murders.Hence the father and his two sons attempt to
destroy the machines.
It’s a great metaphysical concept.But the execution is
shoddy,and shallow,as if the director is almost reluctant and apologetic of
delving deep into the idea.He falls back on the traditional themes of family,love
and hope to extricate himself out of the existential mess he has created.This
is the undoing of the film,as are the humourless and almost constipated roles
performed by all and sundry.Its a tuff film to watch ,and one cant be sure what
to make out of this effort.
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