Know it all. Yet, can't decide on anything.

Rating: 9/10 (8 August 2016)

Mr. Nobody is about cause and effect. It has a child, Nemo, a master of this scheme and he is constantly bombarded with choices which he can not make carelessly.In the movie, Nemo narrates his tale through several permutations of his life, constantly looping back on itself. He chooses to grow up with each of his divorcing parents and has three separate and mutually canceling lifelong romances. If it sounds confusing, that is because it is. A quote from the movie which beautifully sums itself up: "Every path is the right path. Everything could have been anything else and it would have just as much meaning".
It was a very ambitious attempt from Van Dormael. He succeeded in presenting stunning visuals and some profound scenes that talk about immortality and fate. It is attention demanding and might try your concentration. Unless you get gripped by it the experience of watching it isn't quite as enjoyable as the description might suggest.The theme is torn between the nihilistic proposition that our choices doesn't matter and an encouraging thought that different paths might lead to different kinds of happiness.
The movie was about the ability or inability of making an important decision. To show this, a hypothetical scenario is created which enables Nemo to predict the future. Inspite of knowing all the possible paths his life can take, he is incapble of making decisions. All the possible paths shown have some downside, in some he dies in childhood, or of being bored, or living his life at a chair waiting for the love of his life(which one?). All subsequent hardships endured at three critical junctions in his life are examined. He eventually encounters his death in some of the scenarios. These deaths he labels as dead ends and moves to any one of the other different outcomes of his life. He realizes it is this child's decision which impacts everything in his life. Throughout the movie Nemo makes contradicting statements; at the end he says none of these paths have existed, the child who had to make a decision was unable to so and he makes a third decision, an unknown one. The old man laughs as his world disintegrates. And the movie ends with the child not making any of the choices that he had been thinking about.
It uses pseudo-scientific and hypothetical concepts to make the whole narration dramatic. The repeated demonstrations of the butterfly effect can get a little exasperating. It is full of stunning shots, weighty concepts, and the incredible acting. Despite its recursive content, it all ties together very nicely and leaves one breathless at the end. I recommend the viewer to watch the movie and form his own theory about the movie, it already has a large fan base on internet which constantly debates about every aspect of the movie.