I Origins Review

RYAN: I love a lot of movies.  I rave about a lot of movies.  But rarely does a movie come along that I feel like actually changes me, or has the potential to possibly change someone.  I Origins is one of those movies.  This film sort of punched me in the gut.  It’s the first movie since Contact, one of my ten favorite films, to as brilliant spark one of my favorite debates – between science and spirituality.

CAROLINE: Whoa ok.  That’s a big deal.  I hadn’t heard about this movie.  Who’s in it?

RYAN: Michael Pitt and Brit Marling.  She’s worked a lot before with this director – Mike Cahill – but I remember her from the movies Arbitrage and The Company You Keep.

CAROLINE: Oh yeah, the blonde.  She seems cute and smart.

RYAN: Exactly.  She actually reminds me of a young Meryl Streep a bit.

CAROLINE: Well that’s one way to pay someone a compliment.

RYAN: It’s not that she’s as good as.  She is very good, but she just has that look.  The star is Michael Pitt.  It’s a great role for him.  He’s just nerdy-cute enough to play the cute scientist.

CAROLINE: God, remember him in Funny Games?

RYAN: Yes! Terrifying!  Thankfully he totally breaks free of that image here.  This movie is really good – it balances the line between epic love story and science/spirituality.  The theme is pretty deep and cool and I wished I had been seeing this with friends because I would love to talk about all that’s implied by this movie.  Oh – and you have to stay through the credits for an extra scene that also has certain implications.

CAROLINE: Oh, taking a page from the Marvel playbook, are they?

RYAN: Exactly.  There are some cool lines in this movie too.  I can’t believe that just a week after Wish I Was Here opens, there’s another movie with a line I wrote down and wanted to remember.  Enlightenment is in the air.  Awe and wonder.  I loved the love story part of the plot.  I was so into it.  I found myself leaning into the screen, like wanting to be a part of this world.  It’s a really beautiful story and a truly artistic indie film, without ever being all experimental.  Excellently shot.  The title is interesting too because this movie is all about eyes; the eye being the window to the soul and that whole thing.

CAROLINE: I can see how that could be deep.

RYAN: I’ve always been intrigued by science only believing what can be proven and then we look at faith and feelings like love as something you cannot prove but you know exists and the like and it’s all so brilliantly intriguing.  And depending on how it affects you, it can be life changing.

CAROLINE: The power of movies.  I love how deep this one is.

RYAN:  This movie is smart, provocative and heartbreaking.  I actually had a physical reaction to certain scenes – tearing up or crying, feeling shocked, that kind of stuff.  This is a chic, hipster movie.  It’s like the Brooklyn of all indie movies and in this case, I mean that as a compliment.

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