Review: Mr. Nobody (2009)

This might be the hardest review I’ve ever tried to write. Let me introduce this post with sentences that make sense before I spiral into confusion. My Grampy is an avid reader of our blog (or so he tells me) and I love catching up with him on a Sunday and discussing films we’ve both watched. He recommended Mr. Nobody to me ages ago now, and reminds me every week that he hasn’t seen a review for it on our blog yet.

Not that I’d purposely put it off or anything, but it’s taken me a long time to finally sit down and watch it. I knew it would be a mind-bender, but that’s actually my favourite kind of film. There have been a great number of films I’ve had to read into (Inception, Enemy, Donnie Darko) before I fully understand them, but Mr Nobody is still playing on my mind now, and so you’ll have to excuse me if this review makes little sense!

IMDB describes the film’s plot as the main character, Nemo (Jared Leto) as a young boy, stood on a train station platform trying to decide whether he should stay with his Father or get onto the train and leave with his Mother. The film then shows a series of possible outcomes of that decision. It’s extremely hard to work out what part of the film is the ‘current’ timeframe, as although it seems to be the elderly Nemo telling his story to a reporter, it’s made very clear that Nemo can ‘remember the future’.

I love the premise of the film. It’s a perfect cross between the Butterfly Effect and Chaos Theory. As a child I used to overthink the tiniest things and think about what would happen depending on my choices (I was an odd child) and so this film is just perfect for me. It was just that little bit too confusing. I’m still wondering if there’s a Sci-Fi element there, what with the journey to Mars and the future that elderly Nemo is living in.

Tying the whole film together is a trio of girls that Nemo knows as a child. Depending on his choices at the train station, in each of his ‘lives’ he ends up getting married to each of them, although it’s clear which his true love really is. Some of the stories are actually quite heart-breaking. The colours of their dresses when they are young remain with them as they grow older, the colour schemes are very clear.

By the time you’re reading this I’ll have met up with my Grampy, and maybe he’ll be able to shed some light on my confusions. That, or the whole reason he wanted me to watch it is because he didn’t understand it and hoped I would!

Mr. Nobody will now be known as the most confusing film I’ve ever watched, but it was thoroughly enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind taking paracetamol with their popcorn.