A movie that explores the nature of memory and the soul

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2011)

My friend suggested that I see this movie and said that it was very existentialist. I took his advise and am very glad that I did go and see it. I have added this movie to the must get movie list because of the story and the depth of it. Not only does this movie have an entertaining plot, but it explores a lot of things dealing with human existence, such as free will, memories, the soul, and even hope and happiness.
The movie is about a race of beings who have a power called tuning, that is they can manipulate reality. They are a dying race so they go to Earth to study human kind to find the secret of immortality. They believe that by understanding the human soul and emotion they can save their race. Thus they gather humans together and program their memories so that they can study their responses. A problem arises when one of the subjects awakes before the process is finished and thus he wonders around without a mind. What makes it so dangerous is that this human, John Murdoch, can tune.
There is an idea of hope running through the movie and this is created in a place known as Shell Beach. The city is dark and polluted and could represent the world while Shell Beach is everything that the city is not, and could represent heaven. No matter how John Murdoch tries to reach Shell Beach he cannot. He is always confronted with it, but there is no way that he can reach the place. In the end he discovers that it does not exist and thus creates it. It seems that one of the ideas is that beyond the hell that is this world there is nothing, true existentialist and absurdist philosophy. The only heaven is that which we create for ourselves. We can never reach heaven because Heaven does not exist and by seeking it we are only wasting our time.
The question of who we really are is also raised. Are our memories really what we define ourselves as. We rely upon our memories to tell us who we are and this is what the aliens believe that makes us human. Yet the movie turns that back on ourselves telling us that our memories can be manipulated and changed, what is in our memories is only an illusion and our true self is in our soul. Unlike a lot of scientific notions, this movie claims the existence of the soul, yet it may not do that for it seems that the memories that are implanted into people force them to become what their memories tell them that they are. Are people nice people because of their memories or because of their soul? This is the question that the movie tries to answer. Is it possible to change our memories and thus create a different person or is the definition of our character different. I seem to fall on the side of our memories are the definition of our character. Not always though because there are parts of us that are separate from our memories that still define who we are. Still a person that is constantly attacked by society is more likely to come out as a social critic than is one who has a pleasant life.
Freedom is another idea that comes in through the movie. It is the typical American idea of individual freedom and the removal of a more powerful controlling force that impedes that freedom. I was criticised for reading too much into the movie concerning this, but the aliens, which could and probably do, represent the government, control the lives of the people who live in the dark city. They change the people as they like and will move them from the street into a beautiful mansion to test their theories. To the aliens we are just toys and this is a backlash at an impersonal government that treats the people as such.
I have probably revealed a lot about this movie, but its depth calls for it to be examined in such a way. To just talk about the movie without revealing much would have caused a lot of problems because many of the themes that come out of the movie are revealed the deeper one dives into it. In anycase, this is a brilliant movie. Another thing is that not one second is wasted in this movie. The plot is exceptional and keeps you hooked right through to the end. Things are always happening and being revealed, though there are breathers at spots to allow one to catch up with what has been shown.