12.6.05

Movie: What the [bleep] Do We Know?

I rented this movie because of so many anonymous recommendations. I'm not sure I know anyone else who has seen this movie yet, but if you have, let me know - I'm very confused by it.

The movie is unlike any I've ever seen, but it's not unlike a 2-hour Discovery Channel special. Or at least, that's how it starts out. Add in a healthy dose of Self-Help and Religion, and a peculiar (comic relief?) sequence, and that mostly covers it.

I don't know if a movie like this can have spoilers, but based on the way the movie is presented, this might count as one, so beware:

The movie is mostly clips from interviews mixed with an example storyline, which follows the life of a woman who's learning about the things discussed in the interviews. During the course of the movie, no credentials, names, etc. are given for the interviewee's, and I began to suspect very early into the movie that these were in fact actors portraying scientists, explaing Quantum Mechanics (purportedly what the movie is about) and how it impacts biology and morality. This became especially worrisome as they started makeing broad statements and conclusions that I believed to be false, and the movie built from them. At this risk of my theoretical framework, I decided to watch a bit more passively, and just watch the movie, ready to discard the whole package at the end if necessary.

But after the movie ended, they displayed the credentials for the interviewees, and they were at least as honorific as what you might find in a typical Nova or History Channel installment. It was very bizarre and a bit of a twist, which is an unusual feature of a "documentary".

When all was said and done, I agreed with the general point of the movie, but not many of the details. Of course, I'm not qualified to argue Quantum Physics, but that topic is given only an elementary overview, and is mostly lost as the movie continues.

If anyone else has seen this, let me know - I'd like to discuss it, but I don't think I could explain the whole thing if you haven't seen it.

5 Comments:

At 15/6/05 3:08 PM, Blogger Sarah said...

sounds interesting i'll have to checkit out soon...

 
At 15/6/05 6:20 PM, Blogger anne said...

I haven't seen it, but I've been wanting, too. Pretty much all the hippies in Ellicot City, Maryland (where my belly dancing friends reside) have seen it and loved it. ? so I don't know...

 
At 16/6/05 10:29 PM, Blogger Wray Davis said...

Cool! Let me know what you guys think...

 
At 24/6/05 12:21 AM, Blogger phdendron said...

I saw it several months ago with Sandy at an artsy theater down by UC Irvine. I rather liked it although I'm not remembering a lot of specifics at this point. At first I thought it was sounding like one of those Hollywood Scientology deals, but If I remember correctly, it was financed by a Buddhist businessman.

 
At 5/7/05 10:30 AM, Blogger Wray Davis said...

Yeah, it really seemed like a Scientology show to me for a bit as well, especially when they were talking about drugs, but in the end it was just an interesting movie.

 

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