★ 1 / 10
The Discovery poses a very interesting question. If
tmdb28039023
The Discovery poses a very interesting question. If life after death was scientifically proven, would this knowledge cause a massive wave of suicides? Oh…
The Discovery poses a very interesting question. If life after death was scientifically proven, would this knowledge cause a massive wave of suicides? Oh, wait; did I say “interesting”? Actually, I meant “stupid.” Dr. Thomas Harbor (Robert Redford) claims to have discovered, in Hamlet's words, "the undiscovered country." Six months later, “the number of suicides has quickly reached one million.” They say curiosity killed the cat, but even a cat has more common sense than this. It’s impossible to take The Discovery seriously for the simple reason that millions and millions of people have believed and continue to do so in some kind of afterlife, and none of them save the most deranged and disturbed are in any hurry to cross over to the other side.
What's more, these believers have no regard for scientific proof – if they did, they wouldn’t be believers at all –; to them, it all comes down to faith, which is the basis for all religions. By the same token, most religions have laws against suicide; oh, those who take their own lives do go somewhere, but it’s not a place anyone is looking forward to spending the rest of eternity at. Of course, it’s possible that the afterlife Dr. Redford has discovered is not governed according to the tenets of any one theology – but then its true nature is never specified, so who’s to say that all these idiots offing themselves aren’t punching a one-way ticket straight to hell (or worse)?
One thing’s for sure, though, and it’s that these suicidal maniacs are too dumb to live anyway. All of Redford’s considerable gravitas can’t keep the good doctor from coming across as a quack, whose explanation for the afterlife sounds, accordingly, as a crock of pseudoscientific drivel. The makers of this movie undoubtedly have a low opinion of the same masses one assumes they expected to lure into watching this dreck, if they truly believe so many of us would so carelessly engage in an experiment that is tantamount to jumping into a pool that may or may not have any water in it.
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★ 7 / 10
An interesting premise, plagued by unlikable characters
siderite
This movie is another take on the popular motif of the afterlife. This time, it all starts from a point where it has been proven some part of us goes somewhere…
This movie is another take on the popular motif of the afterlife. This time, it all starts from a point where it has been proven some part of us goes somewhere when we die and we get what this does to people. It was interesting, it raised some questions about the nature of personal reality and regret, but it was difficult to like almost any of the characters in the film. The "regular guy" lead is just a selfish and self centered ass, while the woman he falls for is almost as bad, the dad is awful, the mother horrible. The only normal person there was his brother, who of course has a simple supporting role. Robert Redford's character was equally obnoxious, but in his case I think it was necessary, as the scientist who apparently thinks only of his work, hurting the people around him.
Bottom line: you work through a lot of painful scenes of obvious attempts at video art and deep meaning, which by their very nature are neither artistic nor meaningful, only to get to the somewhat interesting twist at the end. The movie is watchable, but nothing beyond average.
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