This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
One Foot In the Twilight Zone
Plot Overview
It is June of 1990. Computers use
floppies, protesters want to “End Apartheid,” and overeducated
(“I am a fucking architect!”) furniture franchiser
Clark (Chiwetel Ejiofor) having overextended himself with
expensive digs—Crest Ridge Towers—a high end
store—Ottoman Empire—and a high maintenance
wife—law school grad—is reeling from his tax bill. He
turns to drink and ultimately to therapy.
We all have our loops. Our habits. Behaviors that keep us walking in circles. Reaching for the same solutions over and over again. Thinking each time will take you somewhere new, but they don't. And still, it's the neural pathway of least resistance. A path you made. It's the one that kept you safe when you were a child. You learned to push people away before they could hurt you. And now, as an adult, you're still stuck right where you started. Alone.
The issue with his wife was that
everything cost money, not the least of which was her
education. He worked hard to provide it. He couldn't just punch out
at the end of the day like an employee but had to put in extra
hours doing inventory and the like. He needed some beers to unwind
afterwards. She didn't like the smell of alcohol on his
breath. She wanted him to come home early and unwind with her. Yet
because of differences in their sex, age, culture and race, she'd
just wind him up more, albeit in different ways. Under therapy he
was presented with a workable alternative, something along the
lines of a character in an Alberto Moravia novel who “knew
that never, as at that moment, had he been so clearly confronted
with his destiny. He was like a stone standing in the middle of a
cross-roads, with two roads, different but of equally decisive
importance, leading away from him, one on each side” (241).
He could unwind at the cinema, either by himself or with his
wife seated quietly at his side out of politeness to the other patrons.
As the idea
works its way out from his subconscious Clark “imagines
describing a dog to someone who's never seen one before and then
asking them to draw it. It will look similar but the devil is in
the details.” The electrician coming to check the breaker box
in response to lighting blackouts corresponds to various
levels of a cineplex going dark at different times—for
different shows. A Twilight Zone type portal in a wall corresponds
to the big screen itself. Hallways correspond to the maze of
the cinema complex. Piles of furniture correspond to seating
arrangements. There's a control room and bathrooms. A rather
dangerous, larger-than-life pirate is the actor from a store promo. Disfigured mannequins are stars
after cosmetic surgery. The catbird seat is designed for a
potentate to relax in. And it goes on and on.
Ideology
When Clark
starts missing therapy sessions, his shrink out of concern tries
looking him up at home and then at his store. She stumbles into its
alternative universe and in an extended shot of a fixed setting, we
may note that her blouse displays the same type pattern as does the
wall motif—same artist at the very least. Weird! When she
confronts her patient, she gives him the real nitty gritty:
Mary: “You want to know the real reason your wife left you? It wasn't the drinking! or the stumbling home at all hours or the rage! It was the whining! Nothing's ever your fault is it? You drink too much? Blame your job. You hate your job? Blame the world. You get kicked out of the house? Blame your wife. You attack me and tie me up? Blame your brain—you are your fucking brain, you dipshit!”
Clark: “You're saying it's my fault?”
Mary: “Yes. But it's just the way you're wired, isn't it? Isn't it?”
The many closeups of Clark show him to be African American with pronounced negroid features. His skin is black, his nose flared, his lips puffy, and his hair nappy. Furthermore, he sports a beard establishing his masculinity. He is the quintessential uppity, buck Negro, his success is by dint of hard work, and yet he whines. Did he expect it to be just given him? Did he think it would be satisfying? The good book advises, (Prov. 30:32) “If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.”
Mary
gets taken by some mysterious scientists to an interrogation
room where she's now wearing a white blouse matching the solid
decor of the walls. They want her to explain this extended
dimensional reality they find themselves in, which she can't
do but she can offer them clues. This puts Mary in the role of film
critic, such as mois. Race relations are beyond my mandate, but I
have been able to relate clues from movies
containing the subject of race.
Production Values
“” (2026) was directed by Kane Parsons. It was written by Will Soodik and Kane Parsons. It stars Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve and Mark Duplass. The two leads did a solid job and the smaller parts filled in nicely.
MPA rated it R for language and some violent content/bloody images. Cinematic images were genuinely spooky. Exterior shots were filmed at 15 King Edward Street, Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. Runtime is 1 hour 50 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This one if for Twilight Zone fans and such. It's hard to interpret without a guide.
Movie Ratings
Action factor: Decent action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Amazing special effects. Video Occasion: Fit For a Friday Evening. Suspense: Don't watch this movie alone. Overall movie rating: Four stars out of five.
Works Cited
Scripture quoted from the King James Version. Pub. 1611, rev. 1769. Software.
Moravia, Alberto. The Conformist. Il Conformista, Copyright 1951 by Valentino & C., Milan. London: Martin Secker & Warburg, LTD, 1952. Print.
bibles.n7nz.org