Blown away

Rating: 10/10 (1 April 2014)

"Mr Nobody", only the third film in around 20 years by writer/director Jaco van Dormael (the Belgian auteur, best known for the fantastic "Toto the Hero"). This one was released in 2009, shown at festivals, but never properly distributed, and then re-released last year on Blu-Ray and DVD. It may disappear into obscurity, but I hope not as it deserves far wider appreciation. As it stars Jared Leto, perhaps his Oscar success will bring it some attention.
Anyway, I was blown away: 9.5 out of 10.
It doesn't feature a straightforward narrative, but as a result there is a lot of fun to be had piecing things together. I have watched the blu-ray twice in a couple of days, and it rewards repeated viewing. The film is by turns philosophical, funny, scientific, whimsical, romantic, tragic, spectacular, surreal and thought-provoking, with some clever, tricky filming (still trying to work out a mirror shot near the beginning) and a great soundtrack. Though van Dormael is Belgian, the screenplay is in English this time.
The non-linear structure depicts various alternate versions of main character Nemo's life playing out, varied according to both random events and key decisions he takes at different moments. There may be a nod to "Sliding Doors" here, but this one juggles a lot more alternatives, is much more surreal and has less rom-com and fewer Monty Python impressions (though there is a Terry Gilliam moment at one point). Each alternate scenario is distinguished by reasonably subtle variations in things like colour scheme and camera work. The overall look and design are fantastic.
Jared Leto plays Nemo in his various adult versions as well as, under "Little Big Man" style makeup, ostensibly narrating the film aged 117. But as he declares he is 34, he may be an unreliable narrator! The 117 year old Nemo is the final mortal: he is about to die, although for everyone else, medical advances have eliminated ageing, sickness and death. Naturally he is the subject of 24/7 media coverage, like some geriatric version of "The Truman Show". Another of the threads involves space travel, spectacularly realised like parts of "The Fifth Element" or "2001". I don't want to give the impression that this is some sort of mash-up of loads of other films though, because it is, for me, a real one-off.
And as clever and technically impressive as it is, this isn't just empty cinematic showing off either, because at the heart of things are Nemo's relationships with his parents and with three women in his life/lives, giving the film a real emotional core.
Jared Leto is excellent in his various guises, and there are some great performances in support, from Rhys Ifans and Natasha Little as his parents, Toby Regbo as teenage Nemo, and Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger and Juno Temple as some of the loves of his life at different stages.