The zero theorem (2013)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2013
	Director: Terry Gilliam
	Actors: Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Thierry, Lucas Hedges
	Country: GB, F, USA, RO
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: 24.11.2014, Schauburg, VO sneak preview
Synopsis: Qohen Leth (Waltz) is a computer scientist living in an ancient monastery whose goal is to discover the reason for his existence continually finds his work interrupted thanks to the unreachable Management. Bob (Hedges), a teenager being a computer crack and Bainsley (Thierry), a pretty call-girl.
Review: I was excited when it was clear in the sneak preview that the "surprise" movie was this one, as I was excited by the plot. But I did not see in the story the search for a sense in life. Qohen is actually just waiting for a phone call that will never come, for an illusion. I understood Bob as the son of the Management, the son of God, and he tells the good words to Qohen, about freedom, love and social life; and Bainsley as the call-girl actually looking for being loved by Qohen and encountering only a wall of indifference. Here the Manager is a kind of God observing Qohen and everybody in order to make him work for his goals. The parties are like today in a café where people meet physically but each one is connected to anything via the Smartphone and pays attention only to it.  The photography is dark and very colourful at the same time. The futuristic view of the world is a kind of translation of what already happens via Internet (e.g. social networks, games, violation of privacy, user-adapted advertisement) on the complete world, on the street. The costumes are beautiful of colours and originality except Qohen's. It is also full of elements having connotations (to Christian religion, to unreachability, omniscience of God/Management, to workaholism). This was interesting. Unlike other movies of Gilliam I liked (Brazil, Fisher King, Twelve monkeys, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus), I do not see a strong sense nor a mystery in this movie. As this surprises me, I wonder whether I missed something as I had difficulties to understand Waltz talking in the first 30 minutes.
Rating: 5 /10