Engy

This might be one of the best movies I’ve ever seen.  I don’t know if I’m of the opinion that you shouldn’t try to understand this movie and “just feel it” instead. There’s so much enjoyment in trying to put the pieces together and making sense of the underlying structure.  One of the main reasons why most people struggle to understand this movie is they’re attempting to piece together a coherent “timeline” of events. You really need to completely disregard the instinct to arrange events temporally and instead treat time like an almost “physical”, symmetrical structure rather than a flowing sequence.  The events of the past influence the future, and vice versa. Causes and effects form a closed loop.  This very concept is what makes this film so philosophically rich, which is my favorite thing about it. It’ll have you confronting determinism, free will, and the motivation to act within a reality that produces fixed outcomes. What does it mean to choose when the outcome is already fixed? What is the actual role of will when it comes to shaping future outcomes?  The film’s answer is this distinction doesn’t really exist. The past, present and future, all equally woven into the fabric of reality. All co-existing.  There’s so much more to love about this movie. The score is incredible, the cast is strong and the cinematography is top-notch, but my favorite thing has to be how much thought was put into this movie. Even details like the meanings behind the characters’ names and how that factors into the film’s model of time.  I really think this is perhaps Nolan’s most misunderstood work, which is quite frustrating but also is perhaps part of this movie’s charm. It doesn’t try too hard to be understood anyway. Some would argue that’s a failure on this movie’s part, and I will grant that it does get confusing at times, given that the premise itself isn’t easy to grasp, but that’s exactly what makes this movie so memorable. Because to fully appreciate it, you must think. Discuss. Analyze. And I honestly cannot remember the last time a movie’s succeeded at making me do that.