My Terry Gilliam Review Thread

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I'd love to be able to say that Terry Gilliam's vision and style have evolved to conform with the much smaller budgets he gets to work with these days. I'd love to be able to say he's found new ways of stretching those budgets and maintaining his hold on our imaginations, presenting his creativity by making use of all the new tools filmmakers have at their disposal. I can't say that. Instead, when we get to the production of the relatively low-budget The Zero Theorem we see a Gilliam who hasn't adapted to changing circumstances, and we see a very circumscribed and muddled vision of Pat Rushin's ideas and story seen through the famous director's once-fabulous lens. This jumble of fun futuristic sets and philosophical ideas adds up to less than the sum of it's parts, and instead of thought, it inspires confusion and a little disinterest. I really want to like it, but it feels too unfinished and stunted to inspire much enjoyment.

Qohen Leth (Christoph Waltz) lives a joyless life, working for the Mancom corporation crunching "entities" instead of numbers for a massive computer that appears to be part-organism. He believes he's dying, and wants desperately to be able to work from home so he's available to answer an important phone call he's waiting for. His supervisor Joby (David Thewlis) sets up a meeting with Management (Matt Damon) who makes a proposal - work on project that has burned out and destroyed many former employees, "The Zero Theorem" and he can stay home. Leth works at it, and makes progress - but he soon starts to break as the unsolvable puzzle frustrates him. Management sends a sex worker, Bainsley (Mélanie Thierry) and his son, Bob (Lucas Hedges) to help, but Leth finds out that the purpose of solving this puzzle is to prove that the universe will one day collapse on itself, and therefore render life meaningless. Since he only ever wanted to find out the meaning of his life, he heads for one last confrontation with his boss and the computer he's been helping to build during his melancholy occupation at Mancom.

Qohen Leth (a take on Qoheleth - Hebrew for Ecclesiastes, which in the Bible explores the meaning of life) has the advantage of being brought to life from a top shelf actor, and Waltz does a tremendous job, but the problems this film has are buried deep in it's narrative structure and confined setting. Gilliam's vision is as always prescient, humorous and intellectually stimulating, but there's a distinct lack of freedom and technical brilliance here that makes you feel like you've been shown a few hastily scrabbled together sets to stand in for an entire world. This is so very far from films like Brazil, which had a seemingly never-ending series of sets and set-pieces, building a world you believed in. Here, you can almost see around the edges and notice contemporary Bucharest just out of frame. Much of what happens takes place in Leth's apartment, a set that has been put together from the ground up - representing a fire-damaged church. The allegory is a little too pointed and obvious.

Director of Photography Nicola Pecorini first worked with Gilliam on Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, early on in his career when he rose to that position. We rock around a little at times, bouncing uncomfortably if we're following action, but often in this modern day and age it's inserts of screens and computers mixed with kind of regular shots - often done by a second unit. Leth's trip down his futuristic street is impressive - but there's simply not enough shots like that to fill out the film's universe enough. It was the second unit who filmed all of the adorable inserts with rats grabbing pieces of food dropped on the floor, opportunistically dragging them away. I don't think they added a whole lot to the movie, but they do help to alleviate the lack of warmth and love emanating from the film. The production design (what amount we get) is quite good - a deliberate take on Neo Rauch and his mix of colour and futuristic design with surreal art deco all mixed together into an explosion of abstract circus-like characters and places. Gilliam specifically cited Neo Rauch as an inspiration of the visual design of the film. David Warren handled these design elements - someone Oscar nominated for the production design of Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

The score from George Fenton is sad but not very memorable, and kind of pushed into the background as we're being visually stimulated. Fenton has worked with Gilliam before, and was nominated for an Oscar for his superb work on The Fisher King. He had been nominated 4 times previous to that, never winning. The soundtrack is not overflowing with music that will help guide you through the film, there's only Karen Souza's pleasant version of Radiohead's 'Creep' which we hear a couple of times. I don't know if this was due to budgetary concerns or if the film really plays better in it's quiet, solemn 'meaning of life' atmosphere - at times we do find ourselves in silent space, heading towards the vortex of a black hole representing meaningless chaos. Like the sets, there's just slim pickings in this film, and it isn't the kind of narrative and setting that cries out for minimalist ideas. The computer at Mancom and the doctors "office" (where Sanjeev Bhaskar, Peter Stormare and Ben Whishaw appear in wonderful cameos) look fantastic - but they're here and gone as quickly as commercial breaks. I know Gilliam is cursed, but I wish someone had of been of the opinion that this man needs a bigger budget or else his films won't fly.

There was one aspect of The Zero Theorem that I thought was a big success though - one that really came through - the costumes. This was despite the budget concerns (a running theme of the whole production - even the actors took scale salaries, the big names doing so for the sake of appearing in a Gilliam film.) Carlo Poggioli, an enthusiastic collaborator who had worked on The Brothers Grimm found a source of material that was sold so cheaply it went by the kilogram. Most of it consisted of plastics, and making costumes from this material made them hard to wear, but come out brilliantly bright and dazzling on film. The various designs are memorable, even when you just catch a glimpse of some of them on streets. Leth's virtual reality suits, Matt Damon's "chameleon" clothes that match sofas and curtains and other apparel really seem to be powering what should have been a better film overall. The once Emmy-nominated costume designer had little to work with money-wise but found a way - something the production designers and Gilliam in an overall sense couldn't. The sets don't stretch far enough, but the costumes do.

The meaning of life, the future direction of computer memory and the conflict between the corporate world and the philosophical yearnings of ordinary people seem to be typical Terry Gilliam subjects, and so The Zero Theorem ends up being no surprise to those familiar with his work. Pat Rushin's story would have talked to his sense of narrative style. I simply wish all of the jumbled scenes, which play mostly out of chronological order, made more sense when taken in as a whole. Something seems to have been lost. Editor Mick Audsley says he was given a lot to work with from the actors, and I believe him. The performances are great - including a surprisingly wonderful turn by Mélanie Thierry, chosen as a practical unknown by Gilliam and casting director Irene Lamb. Sexy, funny and overflowing with personality - the ying to Qohen Leth's yang. Even David Thewlis is memorable in his small role, and Tilda Swinton's comedic ability shines through. I just think Gilliam didn't have enough to work with as far as time and budget go. His eyes were bigger than his belly. He couldn't tell this tale with what he had at his disposal.

There's a lot here that's good, but The Zero Theorem feels disjointed and muddled. Often, Gilliam can even turn the disjointed and muddled into something worthy of seeing - turning chaos into a comment on chaos - but that doesn't seem to be the aim here. We can discern the aim, but there aren't enough jigsaw pieces to give us a clear enough picture to satisfy those who have put themselves through seeing this film. The party scene where everyone is looking at their screens is probably a little too close to reality to work as an 'eccentric' Gilliam addition. The church of Batman the Redeemer is a good one, as are the "do not" signs at the park (there are now around 100 of them) but these stick out as sets and set pieces instead of natural parts of the story. There's not enough flow for us to believe in this alternate future world - and there wasn't enough money to ensure an easy flow. I have a feeling most of what was shot was used, without much wriggle room at all to change and shape the narrative. Either Gilliam should have secured a bigger budget, or toned down his aspirations with this film - we wanted the magic of L.A. but ended up on the streets of Bucharest, pulling on our virtual reality headsets to find them limited and confusing. Welcome to the low budget version of Brazil - with less of everything - including satisfaction and understanding.