I Origins (2014)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2014
	Director: Mark Cahill (Another Earth)
	Actors: Michael Pitt, Steven Yeun, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey
	Country: USA
	Genre: Drama, Romance
	Conditions of visioning: 06.01.2018, in-flight entertainment system, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Molecular biologist Ian (Pitt) has always been fascinated by the human eye. While his work is progressing in an unexpected way, he meets Sofi (Bergès-Frisbey) at a party and they fall madly in love.
Review: I mistook this movie for a biopic on the real discovery of the eye evolution process and expected something like The Theory of Everything, so I spent its first half focusing on the many events that seemed exaggerated compared to reality which gave me a bad impression of it. Only then did I realize that the story was a fiction so I could start to relax and enjoy it as such. Independently of my state of mind, I found the movie a bit "arty" and not really knowing where it was going, probably because the love story is at the foreground and the research in the back. I like that the scientist is not shown like in other movies as the cliche of the distracted genius, but he is more depicted like a normal person. I found nevertheless the common theme that Science is associated with the search to disprove God. Events keep unfolding including a dramatic one that made me question even more the sense of the movie, until it takes a striking turn towards another dimension in its third act. It is amazing how it then caught my attention back while I was oozing, and then I was back into it. That's remarkable. Maybe I would have liked the whole movie better if I had not been disturbed by the first part, because my current feeling is that it is only saved by the twist. Maybe I should watch it a second time. Looking up the director I see that his previous movie was Another Earth, which peaked my interest when it went out with its story of a planet parallel to ours with opposite people. Twilight Zone Science Fiction serving as background for dramatic romantic stories seems to be his trademark, and that makes him one to follow.
Rating: 7 /10