The Choices We Make

Rating: 6/10 (23 May 2012)

Mr. Nobody is a great idea which is poorly executed. Jared Leto is the title character, a 118 year old man and the last human on earth. Much like the story telling flashbacks of Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man, only this time it is a future world.
The prologue explains that we are all born with complete memories of our lives before they happen and the angels of oblivion touch us to wipe out the knowledge. They miss Nemo and he must first choose his parents. They divorce and in one case he lives with his mother and her boyfriend and his daughter, Anna, who invites him for a swim at the beach. He refuses, and years later sees her with her two children. With a second choice, he tells her that he cannot swim and she stays with him on the beach and they become lovers.
With a different choice, he lives with his paralyzed father and must be his caretaker. At a school dance, he meets Elise, but when he sees her with a boyfriend, he rides a motorcycle in anger and crashes and is crippled.
In another scenario, Elise dumps the boyfriend, they marry and have three children, but Elise is severely depressed, and she leaves him.
The last story of Nemo's love life has Elise rejecting him and Nemo telling his father that he will marry the first girl who dances with him. Jean is the lucky gal, and he marries her and they have two kids, a big house with a pool, but in spite of all the material success, Nemo is still unhappy.
Mr. Nobody never really connects on any level. Visually, it reminded me of Tree of Life, which also didn't work for me; both are emotionally distant.