"Dark Matter" is the story of Liu Xing, a brilliant doctoral student of cosmology. Xing travels to America from Beijing to work and study under his hero, Jacob Reiser, who developed an influential theory. When Xing's independent thinking and research leads him to challenge Reiser's theory, he becomes an academic pariah and falls into a downward spiral.
The movie is the debut feature for director Chen Shi-Zheng and clearly the work of an amateur. It's heavy-handed and deals out cliches. When it's not doing that, it falls back on many awkward scenes of seemingly little importance that are neither compel the audience nor advance the plot. Every once in a while, the director indulges his sense of whimsy by showing off some cheesy animation or flashy transition, which is clearly meant to evoke the awesomeness of the cosmos. It's all quite incoherent, and it really feels like a B-movie.
There is an early scene in which Liu Xing explains dark matter and its significance to his patron, Joanna (Meryl Streep in fine form, as usual). His monologue is wishy-washy and romantic in that movie-ish sort of way, but it's one of the few moments that feels sincere and communicates the filmmakers' passion for their subject. By the astonishingly terrible ending, viewers will crave more of that schmaltz, which just goes to show how far south a mediocre movie can go.
Be the first to comment on this article!