This Review Reveals Minor Details About the Plot.
The Book
Plot Overview
A young man Bickford Shmeckler (Patrick
Fugit) suffers psychotic episodes after a family tragedy and spends
six weeks in an asylum. One month after his release his dad sends
him off to college, checking in on him from time to time. He's sharing
a house with some other students who refer to him as “the whack
job who lives in the basement.” When he exits his lair
to investigate a party upstairs that's disturbing his thoughts, Sarah
Witt (Olivia Wilde) a lovely kleptomaniac goes downstairs
and liberates his book. It is a mishmash of scientific principles apt
to drive a rational scientist around the bend who focuses his reality on
them. Sarah's boyfriend Trent (Reid Scott) trashes it, but it
somehow gets found, copied and circulated garnishing an ever-expanding
fan base. This notoriety is not conducive to mental health.
The words of Agur son of Jakeh
The recovery of his precious book is
played out in a clever metaphor using a somewhat familiar proverb:
(Prov. 25:11) “A word fitly
spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” Bound
in a silvery cover it's being held for Anonymous behind the counter
at Golden Apple Comics where he has to prove ownership before
they'll release it. A fitting proof is the torn first page he has
whose rip fits the original nicely. Less familiar is the thirtieth
chapter of Proverbs, which can serve as a template for this plot:
(Prov. 30:1)
“The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, even the prophecy: the
man spake unto Ithiel, even unto Ithiel and Ucal.” The cool
sayings of Bickford correspond to “the words of Agur,”
he being “the son of Jakeh,” even as Bickford is
the son of his father Sheldon Shmeckler. “Even the prophecy”
elevates his words to scripture as we find them so recorded, just
as one of the co-eds at the party takes Bickford's loss of what
he calls “The Book” for, “someone stealing
his Bible.” Agur speaking “unto Ithiel and Ucal,”
corresponds to the sympathetic ears Bickford finds in his two
new friends (severely delusional, schizophrenic) Spaceman (Matthew
Lillard) and (closet gay) Ralph (Fran Kranz.) Bickford, moreover,
acquires a girlfriend but there's none mentioned for Agur.
(Prov. 30:2-3)
“Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the
understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom, nor have the
knowledge of the holy.” Agur is setting his hearers' minds at
ease saying he's not any great one, neither humanly nor divinely speaking.
Bickford stumbling upon the toga party has “not the
understanding of a man,” either. It has to be explained
to him that a toga party means dressing in togas (“Duh!”)
And he concedes it does sound “a tad pretentious” to refer
to his writings originally as “The Book” as if it's some
kind of religious text, which it's not.
As for his book's “unified theory
of everything,” he'll ultimately concede, “There is no
theory of everything and everyone who thinks he needs to
know every g.d. thing is a dipsh!t.” Agur
likewise asks some rhetorical questions to put his hearers in
their place, that they don't have an in with the Creator of the Universe,
which would have given them privileged info. (Prov. 30:4) “Who hath ascended
up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists?
who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the
ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if
thou canst tell?” The movie spells this out graphically. Only
Spaceman takes a trip to the heavens & back to extirpate the
transdimensional aliens from his brain, nobody would dare follow
him. We don't pass around the bong with God who “hath gathered
the wind in his fists.” We don't extend our toga party to include
God “who hath bound the waters in a garment” though we
see klepto-girl lift a water from the fridge. We have only a partial
familiarity with other cultures as in a toga party and a luau party,
not the breadth of God “who hath established all the ends of
the earth.” Ever since the angel announced to Mary the birth
of Christ, we do, however, know the name of the Son of God, but back
in Agur's day not so much “what is his son's name, if thou canst
tell?” When Bickford mentions to Sarah that, “Zeus
had a headache and out popped Athena, goddess of wisdom,”
Sarah replied enthusiastically, “I used to know
mythology!” She loved that stuff but has forgotten much of it.
Agur's people didn't know the Messiah's name in the first place.
(Prov. 30:5-6) “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” Bickford likewise has some good material that should be left as-is. It includes, Descartes, “I think, therefore I am,” Gödel, “This sentence does not exist,” Shakespeare, “To toga or not to toga,” and Tolkien's Gandalf, “You shall not pass.” Whatever. We're not privy to Bickford's cool writings, just that: they're “too elegant not to be true,” they're popular with the college crowd, and the science is presumably discoverable should one care to look it up. Agur's sayings, likewise, have turned up represented in many movies I've reviewed, to wit:
Prov. 30:7-9
Moderation..
Prov. 30:10
Don't tattle.
Prov. 30:11-14.
Don't rebel.
Prov. 30:15-16
Generational provision..
Prov. 30:17
Respect your parents..
Prov. 30:18-19
Wonderful things..
Prov. 30:20
Abstinence.
Prov. 30:21-23
Disquieted Earth.
Prov. 30:24-28
Small wise things.
Prov. 30:29-31
Things going well.
Prov. 30:32
Recovering from embarrassment.
Prov. 30:33
Stirring up trouble.
These are popular themes that show up in the movies, the one exception being abstinence, which isn't so popular.
Production Values
“Bickford Shmeckler's Cool Ideas” (2006) was written and directed by Scott Lew. It stars Patrick Fugit, Olivia Wilde, John Cho, and Matthew Lillard. Fugit pulled off his main part okay while Wilde was exceptional both in beauty and acting. Characters with the most screen time all seemed to have mental challenges, which I attribute to the writer/director Scott Lew (1968–2017) being challenged with (incurable) Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) when he made this picture. He appears in a cameo navigating a wheelchair across campus.
“Cool Ideas” was certified R. The scenery was campus chic. It has a runtime of 1 hour, 20 minutes.
Review Conclusion w/a Christian's Recommendation
This was a pretty good movie, and Spaceman's purging trip was unequalled, but you have to wait for it. It explores new territory, so it's hard to wrap one's head around a plot that turns this way and that. If your expectations aren't high, it should be enjoyable.
Movie Ratings
Action Factor: Weak action scenes. Suitability For Children: Not Suitable for Children of Any Age. Special effects: Well done special effects. Video Occasion: Better than watching TV. Suspense: Keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall movie rating: Three stars out of five.
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