Anyway, I was a bit worried when I read up on what was to be his second film in I Origins. This movie is about a group of scientists who try and prove once and for all that there is no God by genetically engineering an eye in an organism that has never had the ability to see. The main argument they claim they keep running into from creationists is that each eye is too unique and too complex to not have an intelligent designer. So immediately when I read this, a red flag went up. Hipsters tackling issues of this magnitude is always a recipe for disaster. They typically read a paragraph or two on wiki, or if you're lucky, one random book on a particular subject; and the next thing you know you're forced to hear them ramble on for hours about how they're an expert on this matter and how everyone else needs to open their eyes.
Well thankfully, I Origins isn't quite that bad. While some of it's concepts are a bit off base, you just have to realize that it is a science fiction film and you just kind of have to roll with it. There are a few monologues where you have to sit through hipster wisdom early on but once you survive that, the plot kicks in and it actually turns into a rather thought provoking film with some surprise twists. Well, thought provoking if this stuff could actually happen that is.
Everything starts the night that Ian (Michael Pitt) meets Sofi (Berges-Frisbey) at a Halloween party. When he first meets her, due to the costume she was wearing, all he can see is her strikingly beautiful and exotic eyes,but in spite of this they immediately feel a inexplicable connection between the two of them and hook up. After what has to be the quickest sex scene in the history of the world, she quickly runs off under the assumption that they will never see each other again. But due to a number of eerie events that occur too frequently to be random, the universe brings them back together again.
At the same time, Pitt and his lab partner Karen (Marling) are on the brink of successfully proving their theory and providing what they believe to be, the final blow to the creationist argument. But as a few years pass and Pitt has his first child, another sequence of non random events take place that will have everyone in the world questioning their core beliefs.
I know all of this is pretty vague but I don't want to give too much of the story away. The first act of this movie feels like your average run of the mill love story, but as the story unfolds, some pretty creepy things start happening and you find yourself on the edge of your seat as you try and figure out what in the world is going on. And once you do figure things out, Cahill once again throws you a another curve and you're right back at square one.
In what appears to be a constant thing with Cahill and Brit Marling movies, there is a jaw dropper of an ending that will make everything come together but at the same time raise additional questions(in a good way). And this is what I like about their endings, they never quite feel cheesy like the M. Night Schmamalamon plot twists did. I'll give him Sixth Sense and maybe Unbreakable but that's it! I will say that the final shot of the film felt like an ode to Wes Anderson as it included a long slow motion shot with Radiohead playing over it that will stick with me for a while.
Overall I think this film is a good option to hit up if you want something other than the mindless summer movies that are out right now. This isn't a great film but I certainly did enjoy it for what it was. I rate this movie as barely FRESH and suggest that you at least stream it on Netflix.
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