The Zero Theorem

Year: 2013
Genre: Sci-Fi Comedy/Sci-Fi Fantasy
Directed: Terry Gilliam
Stars: Chritoph Waltz, Melanie Thierry, David Thewlis, Lucas Hedges, Matt Damonm Tilda Swinton
Production: Voltage Pictures


Depending on whom you ask there are two types of films coming out of the independent film movement of today. There are the character pieces which are usually small budgeted and encompassing a wide range of raw human emotion. There are some which are absolutely stellar like Frances Ha (2013), Palo Alto (2014) and The Skeleton Twins (2014). But while these chamber pieces are interesting and often poignant they do have the tendency to be vanity projects for the Hollywood elite.

Then again, his visions have always been outlandish.

The Zero Theorem (2014) however belongs to a later category; one which includes such heady fair as The Tree of Life (2011), Cloud Atlas (2012) and The Fountain (2006). It’s a film which tries to encompass complex intellectual concepts like the meaning of life, theological precepts and theoretical physics. Director Terry Gilliam who has never shied away from such big ideas since being a member of Monty Python bites off quite a lot and largely succeeds in having the audience swallow his outlandish vision.

Christoph Waltz plays a much more severe version of Sam (Jonathan Pryce) from Brazil (1985) as Qohen Leth (spelled “Q” no “U” “OHEN”). So intent is he to understand the purpose of his life that he has waited by his phone for years waiting for a voice he once heard to tell him the answer he would have heard had he not dropped the receiver. When not waiting he shuffles off to work at an omnipotent and oppressive corporation as a “figure”-cruncher and has tried repeatedly to arrange to work at home claiming disability. Finally after weeks of pleading, he gets his wish granted directly from the Ariel-like Management (Matt Damon) on the condition that he works on a hush-hush project called the Zero Theorem.

One of the major themes embedded in the story is a philosophical one; what is real, what is make-believe and does it matter? While Qohen toils on what appears to be a giant iphone with the most complicated game of Jenga on it ever, he’s seduced by a nymph named Bainsley (Melanie Thierry). Qohen initially has no interest in human contact yet through Bainsley’s prodding he connects on an intimate level via virtual reality suit. The Utopia they program in cyberspace becomes his one vestige from the Theorem that has become his obsession and the company that has become his slave-driver. Just like in Brazil, the romance becomes the prime motivator to the main character and ultimately brings him out of his pensive, near-solitary state.

Paradoxes abound in Zero Theorem starting with the fact that Qohen waits for a phone call that may never come to give him meaning. The irony is that he’s so afraid to miss the fabled ring that his life has become a meaningless purgatory situated in the decaying edifice of a hollowed out monastery. To make matters worse, Management has set him out to prove mathematically through the Zero Theorem *spoiler alert* that life itself is meaningless. Then there’s the parlance trick of having Qohen refer to himself as “we” instead of “I” which not only gives a nod to Ayn Rand’s “Anthem” but creates yet another paradox.

Of course Zero Theorem cannot be a Terry Gilliam film without his trademark visual pageantry and bug-eyed, cartoon-like cinematography. The future world surrounding Qohen, Bainsley and the rest of the cast is brightly colored if plastic and fake. Ads pop out of everything shilling time shares and sharing the Book of Batman while every man, woman and machine is on the move. Instead of a future where everything with a computer chip is pocket-sized, the world has become an amalgam of hulking apparatuses, wires and liquid vials. The only solace from such bedlam is in dreams which if you’re Qohen is no solace at all.

All hail St. Terry!

Bent on pondering the big theological questions and clocking in at 107 minutes, Zero Theorem is clearly not for everyone. Yet those who have already seen Gilliam’s work and/or those who have seriously considered the big picture will be rewarded by a film so simultaneously meditative and brassy. Instead of a movie, Terry Gilliam has provided a homily; a life-altering experience that may just shake you to your core. Failing that, it’s still a cool movie to gawk at.

Final Grade: A-