Mr. Nobody (2009)

I first became aware of the existence of this film through an episode of Brows Held High. I generally agree with Kyle Kallgren's take on things and he saw the movie as an interesting failure and that's how I approached the film going into it. To my surprise however I didn't think the film an interesting failure, to me it worked, and it worked well. That is not say its not flawed, it is, and much of what  Kallgren called out the film for I more or less just ignored. The framing story and absurd 'moral' at the end, these more or less didn't work, but the core of the film did. Mr. Nobody is about the many different directions a persons life can take, and weaves back and forth between these alternate, constantly splintering timelines in the life(s) of Nemo Nobody.

Born in England in 1975 the primary splinter point in the existence of Nemo Nobody was his parents divorce when he was nine years old, he could have gone to Canada to live with his mother, or stay in the UK with his father, in this film we get to see both realties and then some. The circumstances in which Nemo's life finds him, and the choices he makes results in this same man being many different men or versions of himself, sometimes finically successful, sometimes not, sometimes in a happy relationship, sometimes in a bad or strained one, sometimes even a widower, or leaving a widow, sometimes Nemo is a kind and pleasant person, sometimes he's a bastard. This to me is just fascinating, circumstances mean so much in a life, and we could all be so many different people. As a literary concept this to me seems very underexplored, there should be more movies and books built around this concept, and it could be a hell of a good cable TV show. 

The parts of Nemo's lives that to me were the most interesting were the ones that got the most screen time, his teenage years and his 30's, I could watch variations on those for a long, long time. You even get to where you can put together, without it being overly spelled out for you, why Nemo becomes different kinds of people depending on his circumstances. For example the Nemo that stays with his father generally grows into a more patient man then the one that grew up with his mother, there are reasons for this, you are shown them, but its never directly addressed, I found this extremely satisfying. And while Mr. Nobody again suffers from a surplus of ideas, themes and motifs, there are some gems among that plethora of plot, and I found this to be an extremely fulfilling viewing experience. ***1/2