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over 3 years ago

Out of Blue

a review by Peter McGinn

Near as I can figure just about everybody hates this movie. Clearly expectations based on the novel were not met. I almost feel badly about not hating it. Oh well.

I found the complex and subtle plot line to be intriguing, and I was therefore too caught up in the evocative camera work and the atmospheric soundtrack to count the mistakes and perceived lapses in judgment that others found. Yes, I could have done without the little bits of film clips they threw in repeatedly: the marble or whatever it was rolling on the floor, the red scarf, and so on. There was no explanation that I could see and perhaps deserved to be on the cutting room floor, so to speak. And the ending was a bit too ambiguous for me, which probably was what they were aiming for, so congratulations to them on that front.

The question of suicide vs. homicide reminds me of when I took philosophy classes in college and noticed how a few leading philosophers in the early days of science committed suicide, whether because they were addressing questions no one had thought about before, or uncovering uncomfortable answers, or some other emotional response to the deep investigation into the human condition. And I wonder, do physicists ride the same sort of emotional roller coaster as they delve closer to answers to the big questions of where the universe came from, or indeed, are there multiple universes?

So anyway, I found Out of Blue to be entertaining, intriguing and thought provoking with a subject matter you rarely see explored in theatrical films, so I forgave its cinematic transgressions in other areas.