The Zero Theorem

Terry Gilliam's new film has slipped out with a remarkable lack of marketing or publicity to only a few cinemas - it seems to have been distributed far more as an art film than the likes of Parnassus or The Brothers Grimm. It feels like the momentum has gone out of Gilliam's film directing career - is he too associated with projects that never get finished? - but I very much want to support him making more brilliant films, so I was certain to see this at the cinema. 

On the other hand, it was not one of his finest works. True, it was the most like the brilliant Brazil of all his films - certainly far more so than 12 Monkeys. True, once it got going I liked it very much. But it was a bit of a hard slog getting there, and with the uninspired ending it ultimately felt like a third of a great film and two thirds of a rather dull one. 

The Zero Theorem is the story of insular, agoraphobic Qohen Leth, played by Tarrantino darling Christoph Waltz, who works in a dystopian near-future world. He lives in an old, fire-damaged church (rather brilliantly sleeping amidst organ pipes) and he works an absurd number-crunching job (involving cycling) for a mysterious 'management'. He hates having to go into work because he is equally lonesome there - despite the very annoying but sometimes hilarious supervisor character played by David Thewlis (channeling Michael Palin) - and because he might miss a phone call he's waited for his entire life. You see, Qohen is almost crippled by existential angst. He tends towards nihilism but once had a phone call that felt so transcendental and made him so certain that he was about to be told the meaning of life that he dropped the receiver - and has waited his whole life to be called back. 

After meeting 'Management' at one of the supervisor's parties (Matt Damon rather brilliantly always matching his background, and looking disconcertingly like Philip Seymour Hoffman), Qohen eventually gets his wish and is set up to work from home on 'The Zero Theorem'. He doesn't really care what he's working on, but the number-crunching doesn't work very well and he gets increasingly stressed in his attempts to make mathematics show that 0 = 100%. A girl he also met at the party enters his life (seductive Mélanie Thierry) and he takes courses with a simulated psychiatrist (Tilda Swinton channeling Emma Thompson, but succeeding very amusingly) and though sceptical and fearful at first, he begins to open up to her. 

The film really picks up when Management's arrogant, vulgar yet vulnerable teenage son Bob enters the picture (Lucas Hedges). Prior to this, everyone is very weird, including both the main couple, and as a result the whole thing feels at arm's length. Bob is the Han Solo in Star Wars - the dissenting, cynical, indifferent voice that makes the ridiculous things in the film seem more acceptable. He tells Qohen that like everyone else in his world, he's just a tool for Management to use, explains what the nihilistic Zero Theorem is and that his girlfriend is 'paid by the hour'. It is the influence of youth - with its mixture of idealism and sarcasm - rather than the promise of love that spurs Qohen into real action, especially when the ideal of love goes sour. 

The film's ending leaves numerous loose ends and a strange, artificial, internalised satisfaction for Qohen in a brutally futile world, which felt less profound - which I think was the idea - and more poorly thought-through. This and the very slow start ultimately mean that while the film is well worth seeing - especially for Gilliam fans - it's not even close to one of his best.