Rent Mr. Nobody (2009)
3.3 of 5 from 133 ratings
2h 29min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- In 2092, the oldest man in the world is 118 year old Nemo (Jared Leto). He is on his death bed reflecting on the three main loves of his life with a news reporter. There was his great but taboo love Anna (Diane Kruger); Elise (Sarah Polley), with whom a relationship developed through circumstance; and Jean (Linh-Dan Pham), whom he shared an impassionate life of luxury with. However, when these stories intersect and overlap, the reporter begins to question if any of these lives and stories are real or just a figment of his old imagination.
- Actors:
- Jared Leto, Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Linh Dan Pham, Rhys Ifans, Natasha Little, Toby Regbo, Juno Temple, Clare Stone, Thomas Byrne, Audrey Giacomini, Laura Brumagne, Allan Corduner, Daniel Mays, Michael Riley, Harold Manning, Emily Tilson, Roline Skehan, Anders Morris, Pascal Duquenne
- Directors:
- Jaco van Dormael
- Producers:
- Philippe Godeau
- Writers:
- Jaco van Dormael
- Others:
- Sylvie Olive
- Studio:
- Optimum
- Genres:
- Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
- Countries:
- Belgium
- Awards:
2009 Venice Film Festival Outstanding Technical Contribution
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 12/09/2011
- Run Time:
- 156 minutes
- Languages:
- English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
- Subtitles:
- None
- DVD Regions:
- Region 2
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.35:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Making Of with Jared Leto Interview
- Trailer
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Reviews (3) of Mr. Nobody
Leto Heaven - Mr. Nobody review by CP Customer
I loved this film, I am a huge fan of Jared Leto but the film was better than I had expected. I liked the story.
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
A Pretentious Arty Sci-fi Mess of a Movie - a Belgium/Canada Co-Production - Mr. Nobody review by PV
This movie reminds me of other huge, vast-ranging, pretentious movies which seemed to arrive in the 1990s and end around the time this was made. I am thinking of The Fifth Element, and the truly awful Tree of Life.
A great cast, yes, and some interesting scenes. But all too tricksy and self-consciously post-modern. Why not just TELL A STORY instead of all the endless faffing with alternative universes etc and all the pretentious cod-scientific guff.
I see it was written by the director who is French/Belgian - and also that this self-indulgent mess of a movie was partly paid for by our taxes via the EU, it seems. HOORAH! The whole thing must've cost tens of millions - all to pay for one director's derivative vision. Sigh...
An interesting watch, and enjoyable in parts - but boy, did it test my patience. And young people made up to look old just don't, somehow.
Probably one for the sci-fi fans and those who like tricksy Matrix-type games.
For me, 1.5 stars rounded up.
1 out of 3 members found this review helpful.
Disjointed and self-indulgent - Mr. Nobody review by Alphaville
A 118-year-old man looks back on the twists and turns of his life. It’s about roads taken and not taken and we see all of the alternate life paths in a non-linear fashion. On the Making Of featurette star Jared Leto owns up to counting 12 possible lives. Director Jaco van Dormael likens them to Russian dolls. The man’s memories are confused and so will you be. This might have been okay if what’s on screen is interesting. Unfortunately it isn’t. The characters bore and the constant time and plot switches annoy.
If the film deserves more than one star it’s for its brilliant cinematography, which makes the 45min Making Of featurette more interesting than the film itself. Van Dormael uses different camera set-ups and movements for different time lines, and some of his technique is worthy of a more satisfying film. There’s a scene where the camera follows Leto towards a mirror then continues through it to follow his reflection out of the room. Even after watching it several times on the Making Of, it’s still difficult to fathom how it was done.
Dormael is a great filmmaker but this is not a great film. He’s already made his wonderful and absorbing masterpiece about life in his 1991 film Toto The Hero. If you haven’t seen that, watch now.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.
Critic review
Mr. Nobody review by Alyse Garner - Cinema Paradiso
Mr. Nobody is a strange time-travelling movie from Flemish director Jaco Van Dormael. The movie explores the meaning of life, the choices we make and the way those choices shape our lives, it also delves into questions of truth and fantasy and manipulates scientific theories to make its point.
The movie is not an easy one to follow, the narrative jumps from the death bed of an elderly Nemo Nobody the last mortal on an Earth where man has reached quasi-immortality and technology seems to be the key source of communication; to the childhood of Nemo, which is split between his estranged parents, and his adulthood.
However it is not as straight-forward as all of this, as the key point of the movie is to query how the decisions we make affect our futures. The movie explores all the possibilities of Nemo’s life, branching out from a single moment in his childhood. It uses string theory, chaos theory (the butterfly effect) and the big bang theory to highlight its points and provide a deep undercurrent to the movie.
Unfortunately to the average viewer this all seems little more than a deviation from an already over complex narrative; which in itself is melodramatic and insincere. Due to the nature of the film’s narrative structure you have absolutely no emotive connection to the various characters in their various states of apathy and depression – all the characters seemingly faced with one or both of these states of mental disturbance. Although on several occasions you feel that a plot has the potential to be engaging and interesting the movie seems ultimately to shun drama and normal narrative, which is fine in many cases; however Mr. Nobody just doesn’t seem to pull it off.
When the film finally ends, which seems to drag on for an eternity, a key point in the plot is made clear; a point which if manipulated properly would have had far more of an impact on the movie from the beginning. However Van Dormael who also wrote the story seems to miss the point entirely. This movie struggles to fall anywhere within the art and entertainment genres, yet it fails to be interesting enough to be dubbed an “experiment” and just leaves you feeling lost and frustrated.