What if...

Rating: 7/10 (29 March 2010)

This film starts as a guy named Nemo is asked to retell his life story. Who is he? What happened to him to make him the way he is? Does he remember? As he starts telling his story it becomes clear that the story is quite convoluted.
Keeping the line smack in the middle of The Science of Sleep (2006) and Sliding Doors (1998) this film plays out the "what if" questions of life in a somewhat quirky artistic way. Following events that happen after making a choice - or having a choice made for you - it retraces the full life of a person through several different paths, at once. A multitude of different stories rolling through each other intertwined like an intricately woven web.
While I can say I really like the idea of toying with "what if" questions and depicting the results of each one of them I can't really say I liked the wrapper that was used to capture it all in one film very much. It's acceptable, but I don't think it was the best possible fit.
The bulk of the film though is very good - the different story lines are played out remarkably well and are different enough to stay interesting. It never becomes impossible to track which lifeline is which and the mixing of them is nice. It's just the wrapper that doesn't really fit in and that's a shame.
7 out of 10 choices made