I have called ‘dibs’ on reviewing this picture, for it
struck me with an overwhelming power and sincerity. One may stop right now and consider the title
– I Origins. Well, primarily, the
movie tells a story about a PhD student in New York City whose major is science
- he studies the ‘eye’, eyes of life forms.
Please, do not be deterred by this fact; yes, it is
actual science and has nothing to do with what we do at the Faculty of Arts and
it might be scary (although, sadly, a lot of people at our faculty use the word
‘science’ exceedingly often, as though they actually believe that what they do
is science), but the movie is not only about eyes! This student, called Ian
Grey, attempts to discover a connection between the iris pattern (use Wikipedia)
in one’s eyes and some kind of re-incarnation. So the ‘I’ in the title could
stand both for ‘eye’ and ‘I’, the first-person pronoun, because the film is
concerned with the origin of both eyes
(to show the creationists that the eye is not
really such a complex thing and that it did not have to be introduced by some
kind of a ‘creator’ – God, of course) and the origin of a person’s consciousness, character features, memories and so on.
In this review, or whatever I am actually doing, I’d also
like to focus on the female part of the cast, both Brit Marling (whom I find
insanely attractive, for she sort of has the air of some ‘visible intelligence’,
if you will) and the other actress, some Spanish lass, were absolutely
believable that I had a feeling that neither of them is acting anything. These
two female characters were written as each other’s counterparts, Sofi (played by
the Spanish girl) is an aloof, childish, gorgeous and superstitious lady with
her head in the clouds. On the other hand, Karen (as if the names actually
support the difference, right?) is a reasonable, beautiful, strict woman who
believes in science and fact. This difference is important, for they both
represent a certain attitude towards life and religion. Ian encounters both of
them and it influences him in pursuing what he does. I especially appreciated
Karen’s reason when she caught Ian looking at pictures of his former lady,
Karen does not give way to any kind of a hissy fit, no - she just calmly asks
for an explanation.
There is quite a lot going on in the movie and there
are a few moments that seemed to me like an emotional slap in the face - I wept.
Despite the rather emotional ending, it does not give you a clear conclusion,
as life never does, eh? Well, I shall tell no more. Enjoy!
Matěj Vašíček
