A voyage through unknown territories

Rating: 7/10 (26 July 2014)

I enjoyed the movie very much. I have seen better movies, yes. I would not rate this as the best movie, no. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the movie. I liked it for its original idea, its bold courage to explore that idea and make it entertaining enough.
I do realize that the movie may not be everyone's cup of tea. It moves away from the conventional approach; the way how the storyline has been handled may leave some disgruntled at the time spent watching this. I am fairly confident that Scarlett's stone-faced performance of Lucy during the second half of the movie may raise critical views on her acting.
Personally, I believe that her performance in the movie was fantastic. One has to compare her portrayal of the initial fear-stricken, vulnerable, victimized, ordinary Lucy in the first half to the over- intelligent, multi-talented, highly-skilled, all-knowing and calculatingly-cold Lucy in the second half to really appreciate her performance. If the portrayal of the first Lucy was heart-wrenching, that of the second Lucy was chilling to the bones. It had to be stone- faced because at the level of knowledge she has then, hardly anything is of consequence, gratifying or painful. Few actors can stand up to a Morgan Freeman performance, but this movie belongs to Scarlett all the way and she surely outscores Morgan by leaps. The role does not do Morgan much justice, but there are a few actors who could have rendered his 10 minute introductory monologue with such clarity, yet keeping the audience's attention. Apart from that, his talent is totally wasted.
The movie is a good take on the concept of the unchartered territories of the human brain and what can be achieved. The movie has further gone in to deconstructing the fundamentals of existence as a factor of Time. There is a logic to it, for there were no Time, we cease to be. We exist because we measure time. The people and world around us matter because at some level we measure them with Time. The scene where Lucy describes this with a car disappearing at sufficient speed clearly depicts this connection, for it is not that the car does not exist but that it is beyond the measurement of time or known coordinates and hence not visible.
The movie leaves with a thought provoking note when Lucy communicates via text on Capt Del Rio's phone - "I am everywhere". A subtle reference, for those who chose to believe, on existence of God beyond our measurable limits of time and space. Why He may be everywhere and yet nowhere to be seen. For those who chose not to, it is still an apt ending to the movie, because without a time and space, nothing exists as we know unless it can be proved, even if it is a text saying "I am everywhere".