Mr. Nobody

Film: Mr. Nobody

Director: Jaco Van Dormael

Release Date: September 2009

How wild and fractured are the possible outcomes of our choices, and how much harder is it to ever actually make those impossible decisions? This is the central question of Jaco Van Dormael’s Mr. Nobody and, admittedly, it is a concept that has seen its fair share of film adaptation. But while others have traditionally taken the so-called butterfly effect and used it to raise questions about whether or not we should meddle with the past, or as a lesson in how our small, careless decisions can impact our lives and the lives of those around us, Van Dormael uses this film to instead suggest that each possible future is both beautiful and ugly, and most importantly, entirely valid. Knowing the possible outcomes of a choice does not make the choice any easier, because there is rarely a clear demarcation of right and wrong choices when viewed by the total impact of life.

The film struck me very early on as having strong visual and pacing similarities to both the Wachowski’s Cloud Atlas and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, excellent films that I will interject to recommend right now. The former debuted after Mr. Nobody so this similarity is likely coincidental, and the latter shares its visual effects supervisor Louis Morin, which explains quite a bit. All three of these films are made up of scattered images that are loosely attached within the runtime, but which come together to paint very clear and vivid pictures when taken on the whole. What I consider to be this film’s great accomplishment (and one it shares with Cloud Atlas) is that throughout a long playing time, it feels as though it is always moments away from its emotional climax. I am very much a believer in film as experience, and it is no small accomplishment when a film can make the audience feel something intense and overwhelming not just once, but dozens of different times without ever feeling forced.

At the center of this is a frankly phenomenal performance by Jared Leto as Nemo Nobody, or at least the 34 year old and 118 year old versions. And that’s something I do want to take a moment to point out. I prefer to go into films relatively dark, especially with regards to actors, and I did not believe until afterward that this wizened, wheezing old man was Jared Leto. Hats off to the makeup team who did a magnificent job, and what a performance by Leto to embody this character so well, down to the minute movements of the mouth and face to mimic common expressions of elderly men. Too often, we view a great actor by the immensity of their acting, by how over-the-top and ridiculous their character is. But Leto’s performance here captures all of the subtle emotional intensity of such a range of circumstances in his life, and the nuance and skill to portray all of them so expertly cannot be overstated. He is surrounded on all sides by a talented cast who were all excellent, but a specific nod needs to be made to Toby Regbo and Juno Temple, who play fifteen year old versions of Nemo and Anna respectively. They capture this sort of frantic, reckless passion and seemingly endless weight of the incoming future that so well characterize the middle teenage years, and both of them should have bright futures.

Mr. Nobody may not be a film for everyone, given that there are many times during its two hour runtime where nothing is really happening in the literal sense. But there is always a strong emotional connection and a feeling of something larger than a story floating around, and a great performance by the cast and the excellent visual decisions by the team keep it perpetually interesting and connected. While we may be no closer to knowing which choices we should make in our lives, I can say for certain that seeing this film is one of the better ones you could make.