Weary of Netflix/Prime TV series about detectives pursuing serial murderers while trying to balance a tortured past, and simultaneously dealing with an adolescent daughter who feels neglected, The Phantom has decided to shift to feature length movies.
One can understand the necessity of the "elevator pitch" when scrolling through the hundreds, thousands of movie titles out there: there are simply so many movies made the producers and money men must be so overwhelmed and jaded that they want only a one sentence, or one paragraph "what it's about," which can be promulgated in the time it takes to ride the elevator from the ground floor to the penthouse suites.
Scrolling through the descriptions of movies under "Science Fiction" the picture for "I Origins" grabbed The Phantom, because the Phantom had once seen a shop in Montreal, where for $69 (Canadian) you could have your irises photographed and the posters on the sidewalks were arresting.
Who knew irises could be so varied and wonderful?
Well, apparently the AI folks who make iris recognition software knew.
$69 in Montreal
So, The Phantom gave "I Origins" a whirl, and was sucked in, not instantly, but pretty quickly.
For one thing, how often do you see a movie about a PhD working in a laboratory in Queens, New York?
And the reason he works on the evolution of the eye is established with celerity: People who disbelieve evolution point to the eye as the epitome of something in nature which had to require a creator; it is simply so complex and delicately fashioned it implies, like a watch found on a beach, an intelligent designer. So, if Dr. Ian Gray can prove that, like everything else in living organisms, the eye evolved from a precursor gene in animals without eyes, then he can demonstrate that this impossibly precise thing which implies a creator is just another fascinating result of genetic mutation and natural selection.
His obsession with eyes carries over outside the lab, in a very believable way--he is constantly taking high resolution photos of eyes, which works well for him at parties, and, in fact winds up getting him laid in a bathroom by a woman with beautiful, complex irises.
The acting is impeccable, the writing is astounding: The Phantom never completely understood Hemingway's remark that good writing is as much about what you leave out as what you decide to put in, until he watched "I Origins."
There are wonderful, subtle scenes, like the one where the good doctor arrives in the lab with the woman from the bathroom, Sofi, who he introduces to Karen, his lab co-worker, as his wife, although, in fact Sofi is only "spiritually" his wife because when they went to City Hall they were told they had to wait 24 hours. Karen is clearly, but quietly crushed to learn of Ian's wife, and it is our first real intimation that she has fallen in love with Ian herself. Nothing is said, but you can see it in the actors' faces.
When Ian accidentally splashes formaldehyde in his eyes, he tells Sofi how to help him with the emergency eye rinse equipment, but Sofi is flummoxed, so he tells her to call Karen, who arrives and competently bails Ian out. Sofi clearly feels upstaged and incompetent, and Sofi later taunts Ian about Karen as someone he may like more than herself; again, the competition between the two women, of which Ian is oblivious is artfully done, but unmissable.
Good scripts should surprise you, and the big surprise is that as devastated as Ian is at Sofi's death, he ultimately reveals to Karen that he realized he did not, and never could love Sofi, no matter how infatuated or sexually aroused he was by her, because Sofi was a fey spiritualist, who believed they had known each other in a previous life, and Ian could never really love such a child ruled by such magical thinking.
Ultimately, the crucial scene for the sci fi explanation comes not between Ian and Karen, but with a woman he meets in India who asks Ian if he's religious, to which Ian says no, because religious people refuse to change their minds despite all evidence, no matter how overwhelming, that their beliefs are wrong.
And the Indian lady, played by the wonderful Archie Panjabi, tells him a story about the Dalai Lama, who was asked what he would do if science could provide indisputable evidence his beliefs were wrong, and the Dalai Lama says, "First, I would re-examine the evidence, and if, at the end, I concluded it was correct and compelling, then I would change my beliefs."
And Ian, the scientist says, "A good answer."
"So what would you do, if you were presented with compelling, undeniable evidence that your beliefs about past lives were wrong?" Panjabi asks Ian evenly.
It's a climatic moment, as Ian has been caught in a trap: If you believe in data, in evidence and if you think a willingness to change belief, if only provisionally, is crucial, then you have to be willing to accept past lives if the evidence presents itself and is convincing.
The next set of surprises happens when Ian finally tracks down the possessor of the eyes in question and subjects her to a set of tests, which suggest that she is not from some past life after all, but he has to admit the tests may not be all that conclusive.
Then a test presents itself which likely is conclusive, or at least highly suggestive.
It's a wonderful, artful, intelligent movie, acted brilliantly, directly deftly and brought to a strong end at just the right moment, leaving you with an hour or two of thinking about a lot of fascinating topics.
It does just what the best science fiction is capable of doing.
Mike Cahill
Its author and director is a man named Mike Cahill, who, oddly enough attended Georgetown University while The Phantom was on the medical school faculty there, but The Phantom never heard of him until now. He got his start working for National Geographic films, not by going to a school of film at UCLA or USC or Tisch/ NYU. He says his favorite sci fi films include "Another Earth" and "The Double Life of Veronique."
You can bet the Phantom will be searching out those flicks.
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