I, Origins

Synopsis: Science and religion are at war, didn’t you know?

Where to begin? A warning, perhaps? If you’ve seen the trailer to this film, you’ve had all the central conceits laid out for you, so nothing I say will spoil the plot particularly. If you haven’t seen the trailer and are in the least bit curious, see and experience it with no preconceptions. (And make sure you stay until the end of the credits). Unfortunately for me, I hadn’t seen the trailer, but I did have a preconception. It’s what I refer to as the Brit Marling rule (similar to my now-discredited Joseph Gordon-Levitt rule). If she’s involved, it’s worth seeing. I didn’t think a lot of this film, or her role, so I’ve modified the rule. If she’s acting in the film, and she’s also a writer on the film, then  it’s worth seeing. All three films she’s co-written and starred in, including Cahill’s previous film, Another Earth, are worth checking out. None may be perfect, but all are interesting. Cahill wrote this one himself, and it tells me he’s not as good a writer on his own.

The bones of the plot are that Ian is a scientist researching the evolution of the eye because then he can prove that God doesn’t exist and everyone will have to agree with him. As far as motivations for research go, it’s a bit underdeveloped. Why is he so vehement? Did a priest touch him inappropriately? Was his family ripped off by a cult? Was he once a passionate believer who lost his faith? I have no idea, and apparently neither do the filmmakers. They seem to think it’s just cool to take a guy whose faith is “science” and force him to face the possibility of something other than facts existing. But it’s a false dichotomy, and shows how poor the imagination is that generated this film.

Since Ian is a narrative polarity, he needs a counterpoint. Enter Sofi, who believes in past lives and all sorts of stuff and marries Ian despite him despising pretty much every she holds dear. Then she dies, so he marries his lab assistant, Karen (Brit Marling), becomes a media darling when his research is complete and then, surprise surprise, discovers there may be a scientific proof for past lives and has his world shaken.

In theory the idea could be interesting, but it’s so dogmatically and ham-fistedly handled that you want to scream. Or at least dub over the dialogue with something more intelligent than the drivel the characters tend to spout. Honestly, there’s a moment late in the film where Karen uses an analogy so patronising to anyone capable of rational thought you wonder why a character who is a trained scientist would even think of it. I saw one review that summed up I, Origins as demonstrating that the Science vs Religion argument is completely played out. I don’t necessarily agree with that, but the film does show it requires a deeper level of thought to explore. In many ways I, Origins follows a similar narrative trajectory to Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece, The Fountain. That’s an example of science vs belief explored, with a transcendence achieved that this film scrambles for but fails to achieve.

There are good things to I, Origins. The sequence where Ian (Michael Pitt) discovers Sofi (Astrid Berges-Frisbey) on a train and courts her with his headphones is gorgeous. A few of the lab scenes are interesting too. But Ian is a dislikeable character, imperious and rude. Why Sofi remains with someone who belittles her so frequently is puzzling, despite the conceit of the film. Her sudden death by elevator is also incredibly awkward. It exists in the way it does purely for a payoff in the final moments of the film, but needed more finessing. Sofi is set up as free-spirited and adventurous, it’s out of character for her to panic when a lift stops moving.

There’s one saving grace to this film. It wasn’t originally meant to exist. It was developed from a few pages of back-story for a far more ambitious film about a world where everyone knows who they were in a past life, where people can write wills leaving their estate to their future incarnation, etc. That world is something I’d like to see explored. And maybe if enough people can swallow this trite garbage and it makes enough money we’ll get to see it. But I’m not going to hold my breath.

 

 

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