ignorance is bliss

Rating: Null/10 (20 April 2004)

Spoiler Alert This film for me was an anticlimax, it was very good don't get me wrong, but I had heard that it was a thinking film, a film that you just had to watch over and over again. However I walked out and didn't feel the need to see it again and didn't even want to see it again. I suppose to a certain extent it's a thinking film as it is a film that you talk about and therefore thought is involved. Yet, it does not stretch your thoughts to understand it, like I was led to believe.
In my opinion it is based on the concept that ignorance is bliss and you always want what you can't have. It's about a young mans struggle to come to term with his disease by dwelling on his mistakes in his childhood, and discovering he can switch between his parallel universes. However for me it is about him wanting certain things and not realising that is the exact reason he cannot get them, greed.
He wasn't in love with her from the start, only when he knew he couldn't have her, he only went back to begin with because he wanted something from her.
Some say it has an unhappy ending, however I feel that it is a good ending, it's not traditional or fairytale it is the realistic one, the one he chose, surely that makes it happy?
This film is trying not to be Hollywood but is, it's aimed at teenagers who think they are thinking but everything is laid out plain and simple for them. You cannot take this film to seriously or think about it too much as you would spend hours picking it to pieces, noticing the flaws and forgetting that you did actually enjoy it when you watched it for what it was. One thing to remember, this film is not time travel exactly it is more about parallel universes.
The star for me was Elden Hanson (Lenny), who acted amazingly in all of his parallel selves. Also Logan Lerman (Evan at 7) did a fantastic job. Not really Ashton Kutcher (his first notable "serious" acting job) the supposed "star" of the film.
The issues the film dealt with: paedophile, disabilities, mental illness and love were not done in a tactful manner, it could be very upsetting to watch, and neither did it seem that it was written by anyone who knew anything about those issues.