The Zero Theorem

Terry Gilliam has done many of the really thoughtful movies of the last twenty years and this one is no exception.A dark movie about a dystopian world right around the corner! A mordent comedy in Gilliam's famous style. Imagine a future world in which people don't think but constantly carry around communication devices and constantly need to be entertained. Imagine a world where TV type ad's stalk your every step as you walk down the street, constantly trying to sell you stuff. Imagine a world were people go to parties constantly self-absorbed into their communication devices and no longer interact with each other. Imagine a world where people puff on imaginary cigarettes they don't light.I would say Zero Theorem is about a world full of plastic people who identify with their 6G phones and need constant entertainment, who can't think, meditate or carry on meaningful conversations; nosey companies that follow you around and try to constantly sell you things; rich bosses who try to force you to work 24/7 and work yourself to death to make more money for them; and the search for a meaningful life in all of this din of screaming media. A study reported on NPR recently stated that people with 6G phones average spending 2 hours a day on them...The lead character Qohen (played by Christolph Waltz, the Nazi in Inglorious Bastards, the dentist/bounty hunter from Django Unchained ) is a brilliant but extremely introverted programmer working on a computer powered by bicycle pedals that must be pedaled fast before he can enter code. He works for MANCOM. He refers to himself in the first person plural, like royalty, but he is the only sane person in this world. He wants nothing more than to work in isolation from a world constantly trying to invade his privacy. Q is mostly motivated by a desire to just attain a Samadhi like state of release from this world of constant commercial stimulation, symbolized by a black hole in space. Q wants a mystical phone call which will explain to him the meaning of his life. He writes "entities" using bricks of differential equations instead of the computer code we are more familiar with. He tries to get medical leave from his company from a group of three doctors of a type you will recognize from 12 Monkeys.The company owner of MANCOM, (Matt Damon) gives him a seemingly impossible computer program to write which will solve the meaning of life, which he, Damon, will be able to capitalize, if found. He want to work Q until he goes crazy or solves these equations. Damon hooks Q up with a crack teen whiz programmer. You will recognize Q's boss played by David Thewlis as the same type of boss from "Brazil". When Q tries to quit the company owner tries to motivate/force him to work with sexy young a Lolita-like girlfriend played my Melanie Thierry. The owner tries to motivate him with a computerized Read-only-Memory psychiatrist (Tilda Swinton) who offers Q cookie-cutter psychobabble solutions to his quest for meaning.As with "Brazil" , The "Imaginarium of DR Parnassus: and "12 Monkeys" the ideas and sight-gags come so fast you have to re-watch the movie so you don't miss anything. Be sure to the features at the end of the movie about shooting the movie on the cheap in Rumania, buying plastic costumes by the pound and wrangling rats.Ignore many reviews here, pay attention to the subtle details. This is a truly great movie. Great acting from Waltz. And hopefully will be thought provoking, about work, overbearing bosses, omnipresent media companies and the meaning of life...I loved the sun in the sky at the end!Instead of the excessively intrusive government of "Brazil", this movie shows excessively intrusive commercial communication media companies of the not too distant future taking over the lives of all ....

If you dream of seeing a film that mashes up elements of Blade Runner’s set design, Rocky Horror Picture Show’s costume design, and Brazil’s madcap characterizations and bleakness with teased hope, then you’re going to flip for The Zero Theorem, Terry Gilliam’s welcome return to form. Though the plot concerns the quest to solve the meaning of life (as calculated by an unattainable mathematical theorem), Gilliam is not dangling any solutions; he basks in the Kafkaesque farces of people’s struggling to fight authority and attain dream-like freedom. If you think that echoes Gilliam’s brilliant 1985 masterpiece Brazil, it does; The Zero Theorem is Brazil-lite, but what keeps it fresh is Gilliam’s amazing visual design, filled with sight gags and sly references, and the joy of watching some terrific actors let loose in total caricatures that inhabit a surreal cityscape.Christophe Waltz (Inglorious Basterds, 12 Years a Slave) is Qohen Leth, a quirky loner and possible savant who works as a programmer for Mancom (the big bad authoritarian company). His only hope in life is that he will receive a phone call that will bring him total salvation; until then, he works adamantly at his computer to “crunch entities” via a massive virtual world in which he connects mathematical proofs as if playing a video game. Management (personified by an artfully costumed Matt Damon) has an eye on him—many, in fact—because they think he has the potential to solve the Zero Theorem. Qohen is examined by 3 virtual doctors (Peter Stormare, Ben Wishaw, and Sanjeev Bhaskar), and is assigned a virtual therapist, Dr. Shrink-Rom (another whacky prosthetic turn from Tilda Swinton, who we last saw practicing prosthetic comedy in Snowpiercer). His boss (David Thewlis) is charged with keeping him on task, so he sends a stripper (Melanie Thierry) to befriend him, assumably as a stress-relief measure. She succeeds in bringing his humanity (and desire) back, and as Management’s son (a very fun Lucas Hedges from Grand Budapest Hotel) also worms his way into Qohen’s private world (he lives in an old, grand church, decorated as if Pee Wee Herman were into Steampunk), he starts to wonder just who to trust.Toss aside the meaningless plot and revel in the visual circus Gilliam assembles; there is his trademark labyrinthine machinery with plenty of patchy ductwork, hilarious props in the background, brand satires, and of course, a dwarf. Add the creepiest use of a version of Radiohead’s song “Creep” into the mix, and you have classic Gilliam. Few directors make bleakness and cynicism so much fun.CLICHES: the whole “meaning of life thing” is a bit theatrical and trite, even in satireSURPRISES: sight gags (signs in the city, products laying around) are sometimes more entertaining than the film; this will be fun to search for hidden treasures when the BluRay comes outYOU ALSO LIKE: Brazil (avail on amazon), the underrated Adventures of Baron MunchausenTHE WAYWARD CRITIC www.streetscapemag.com/the-wayward-critic

Good movie, another underrated gem from Terry Gilliam.

Ouf: Gilliam revient dans son monde. Le grand Gilliam. On parle de filiation avec "Brazil": oui, les décors y font penser, oui l'errance du héros aussi. N'oublions pas aussi "L'armée des 12 singes" aussi pour le décor, pour le dynamique du héros. Pour le reste, "The Zero Theorem" a son propre univers. Sans le dévoiler, l'endroit où vit le personnage principal. Le clin d'oeil au monde virtuel, superbement imaginé: du pur Gilliam.Zappez les commentaires négatis et foncer si vous aimez Terry Gilliam.Que du plaisir.

Wow! This film is dense! I really enjoyed it and I think for the most part it worked it's themes in pretty well, though initially seemingly very disjointed. By the end I liked a lot of what was going on and have a nagging feeling after digesting it a bit more I'll have liked it even more, as I probably missed some stuff initially.I really, really liked the ending. Ultimately if it's a commentary on the human condition, I'll probably like it. Coupled with numerous great performances, I really can't complain. It's a bit gonzo, especially in the beginning but it slowly unravels as you watch it, I thought it was quite well done.Commenting on just how much power we give others over us, what we ourselves choose to believe and how that effects us for our whole lives. What that means and if it's subjectively worth it. What shattering those preconceptions could do for and to someone's psyche.

Exit des Monty Python, pour exploiter ses fantasmes... peut-être, en tous cas, quelle carrière. Les Monty se reforment bientôt je crois (ou est-ce déjà fait?), mais sera -t-il là notre Gilliam???? J'en suis convaincu, mais les années passent et les carrières aussi... Hope... and perhaps Glory !!!

Bei "The Zero Theorem" hatte ich aufgrund des Titels und des Covers eine Mischung aus Sci-Fi, Action und Thriller erwartet - "Was in Richtung Matrix". Als ich dann in den Credits las, dass es ein Terry Gilliam Film ist, verwarf ich diese Erwartung schnell wieder und in der Tat handelt es sich bei "The Zero Theorem" keineswegs um einen Sci-Fi / Action / Thriller, sondern um ein abstraktes Kunstwerk über den Sinn des Lebens und den Weg zum Glück.- Die Schauspieler (besonders Christoph Waltz) überzeugen- Die Special Effects sind nicht der Hit, aber so nebensächlich, dass es nicht weiter stört- Kostüme und Sound sind mir zumindest nicht negativ aufgefallen- Die Kulissen sind low budget, aber trotzdem recht typisch für einen Gilliam FilmDie äußeren Faktoren bewegen sich also eher im Mittelfeld. Trotzdem bekommt er ganz klare 5 Sterne von mir für die inneren Werte. Die tiefgründige Story, die surreale (Gilliam-typische) Atmosphäre, die Reise in die Tiefen der menschlichen Seele in die "The Zero Theorem" uns mitnimmt.Terry Gilliam ist ein großer Künstler, der hier trotz minimal-Budget ein absolutes Meisterwerk geschaffen hat - für mich einer der besten Filme der letzten Jahre. Ich empfehle ihn jedem, der Brazil oder Requiem for a dream mag.Ich möchte noch anmerken, dass ich es unmöglich finde, wie hier einige Rezensenten dieses Kunstwerk mit 1 Stern verreißen, nur weil sie es (laut eigener Aussage!) nicht verstehen. Wenn Ihr beim Filme-Gucken das Hirn ausschalten wollt, dann guckt halt Michael Bay Filme, Ihr Banausen!