Review
WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW!?
Starring Marlee Matlin
Written and directed by William Arntz, Betsy Chasse and Mark Vicente
Opens Friday, October 22
Globe Cinema
What would it do to your conception of reality to know that you’ve never actually "touched" anything? Well, you haven’t.
What you’ve felt is the repulsion of particles that interact with each other by creating a barrier between you and the world around you. So when you touch your child’s skin you’re not actually feeling it, you’re feeling a mass of subatomic particles being repulsed by another mass of subatomic particles.
And even when your body has been pierced – from a nail in the foot, a knife in the gut or a needle stitching a cut – you’re experiencing a mass of subatomic particles pushing another mass of subatomic particles aside, thus forcing themselves "into" your skin, organs or blood, without you ever being "touched."
This is just one of the paradigm shifts that What the Bleep Do We Know!? bombards us with in its fascinating exploration of quantum physics and the subatomic world’s omnipresent influence on every aspect of our lives.
The production team of William Arntz, Betsy Chasse and Mark Vincente, who shared production, direction and writing duties, craft a fascinating mix of documentary interviews with 14 scientists and mystics, a fictional narrative starring Marlee Matlin and three styles of animation to explain the role of quantum physics in everything from perception and understanding to love and God.
Although What the Bleep Do We Know!? is being touted as "a new type" of film due to its mixing of genres and techniques, there is actually nothing new in its cinematic design. Anyone who has spent any time in Disney World has seen these techniques mixed in nearly every science exhibit at Epcot Center.
But cinematic inventiveness is not what makes this film worth watching. What makes it impressive are the challenges it offers its viewers. It begs us to open our minds to the stimuli all around us that we never see. It begs us to explore ourselves at the most fundamental levels. It begs us to embrace what the scientists describe as "possibility." But mostly it begs us to examine the world we’re in, the manifestations of energy that surround us and recognize that they may not be what we’ve always thought they were.
And it makes a strong case for these potentially shattering shifts in human consciousness without ever demanding acquiescence from its audience. All it requires from us is an open mind.
For those with even a cursory knowledge of quantum physics or the theories of hyperreality, the film will be a beautiful manifestation of ideas they’ve already engaged with. For those coming to these ideas for the first time, it may be an unnerving wake-up call, but only if they bring the open mind the filmmakers require.
Regardless of what camp you fall in, however, What the Bleep Do We Know!? is worth watching. After all, it’s never bad to challenge your view of the world. And maybe our world could use a little more of that right about now. |
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