Upside Down

In Upside Down, director Juan Diego Solanas presents us a romance set in sci-fi fantasy with Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst playing the leads. The film begins with a young Adam (Jim Sturgess) explaining the extra-ordinary setting of a dual planetary system he belongs to with two planets stacked one on top of the other. If you could remember that extra-ordinary scene in Inception where Ariadne (Ellen Page) tests her powers on a city road, it would be easy to visualise this setting where both these planets are literally a stone's throw from each other. The planet below is Down There which is a dump wears the look of a war ravaged zone and is populated by poor have-nots who can barely eke out a living. In contrast, the planet above, Up Top, bears an ultra swanky look with affluence all around. He also explains a set of principles which govern the physics of these two planets, viz. -

Both the planets have their own opposing gravity and matter from each planet is pulled by the respective gravity An object's weight can be offset by matter from the other world (inverse matter) Matter in contact with inverse matter starts burning after some time Any unauthorised contact with the residents of the other planet is strictly prohibited and is punishable

Despite their close proximity, they are connected by a singular high rise structure which connects both these worlds which is owned by a mega corporation from Up Top called Transworld which controls the affairs of both the planets. Transworld mines the resources of Down There and also allows the poor workers from the other planet to toil for the corporation for earning a livelihood. We also see that the tallest peaks of both the planets come very close to each other and this is where we see a young Adam, who is a resident of Down There chances upon Eden (Kristen Dunst) from the other planet. Their contacts grow in length and frequency and when one such extended contact is detected by security guards, it results in an accident in which Eden loses her memory of Adam. Ten years pass by without an event and Adam carries on with life under the presumption that Eden is lost/dead and is now working as a scientist in a workshop in Down There. One day, when he sees Eden in a TV show and finds out that she is now an employee at Transworld, his feelings for her are rekindled and he too joins as an employee of Transworld to meet her and to rediscover their lost love. The rest of the movie narrates the events unfolding in the lives of the protagonists following Adam's risky venture.

This movie, in itself, has much in common with the dual contrasted planetary system it portrays. Despite the seemingly unlimited potential inherent in such an interesting premise, the movie never rises to reach its potential (a la Up Top) except in the case of visual splendour and plummets into an insipid romance (a la Down There) that redefines the term cheesy. The movie is further weighed down by an uninspired and apparently sleepwalking cast with the notable exception of the vivacious Timothy Spall who plays a lively cameo as Adam's co-worker. There is enough material in the premise to weave an engaging plot for some great romance between the leads from opposing worlds or even some well written drama or action thriller on class struggles. Alas, all Solanas and his co-writers could manage here is to barely scratch the surface, rather than to dig in deeper to come up with a more polished work. It is sadly ironic that a film which has gravity as its central premise is bogged down by a story and characters lacking the necessary gravitas !

The result is sadly apparent in a superficial, barely there plot, underwritten one-note characters and a grand opportunity that is squandered royally. Nevertheless, the movie does excel in presenting arresting visuals that are simply awesome in their imagination and execution which redeems it, if not wholly. Every frame of this movie is rich in beautifully crafted detail and presents picture postcard imagery which is simply dazzling. There are several stand-out scenes like the shot of an apparently endless office floor (and ceiling) full of cubicles or the one in which Adam, to escape chasing cops, falls, nay, leaps up into a river as well as the one of a grand ballroom with dancers from either world swaying on their respective ends with a giant chandelier in the middle.

Overall, this movie presents one of the most artistically sculpted exquisite and imaginative CGI visual splendours seen in recent times and would be a delight to watch on the big screen. If only the writers had put in even half the efforts of creating such visuals, we could have had a much better movie than what remains here as pure eye-candy that merely provides spectacular visual delights, but little else. If only ....

The film's setting is magnificently beautiful, there are a lot of stunning ideas and images and the main story is good enough to make the two-planet world look real. The one and the only one flaw of the film is that it pretends to be a sci-fi film rather than a fairy-tale in an unusual setting. If you judge it as a sci-fi you will find a lot of "how could it be" things that tear the imaginary world apart. The actors are great and it is fun to see Spall as a protagonist friend rather than foe. Both Sturges and Dunst are wonderful. So if you want to watch a sci-fi film you better avoid "Upside Down". This is a love story set in the fantasy world. No more, but no less.

If there is one thing "Upside Down" has going for it, it's the visuals. Good God, the film is gorgeous to look at. We've seen hints of a similar visual style in the "Total Recall" remake and "Inception," but the filmmakers milk the unique look in "Upside Down" in as many frames as possible. At times, the visual puns can be a bit too obnoxious to the point it becomes stupid, but overall, they portray the "dual gravity" idea really creatively. Of course, with fantasy films like this that operate within its own set of rules, you usually have to ignore the implausibilities and just go along for the ride.

However, the story is a whole different matter. As the film opens to explain the world's rules through voice over rather than showing it on screen, I knew I was in for trouble. Within the first five minutes, exposition after exposition is thrown to the audience at such a quick pace it's almost impossible to keep up. It also doesn't help that the dialogue is downright embarrassing. With the film's over-reliance on narration, "Upside Down" leaves little time for its characters to develop which consequently makes the story as a whole feel contrived.

For example, the love interest that grows between the film's two main characters comes out of nowhere. Unfortunately, actors Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst don't have the chemistry to sell their newfound romance authentically as well. Every story development feels fake and mechanical where it should feel natural. Furthermore, the film lacks any real climax, so the last 20 minutes where everything should build up to a resounding resolution, instead, just fizzles out to an anti-climatic, deus-ex-machina-like ending as if the story didn't know how else to end.

"Upside Down" has a great idea that should have been a lot better than it ended up being. However, it's obvious the filmmakers were more interested in focusing on the visuals than actually telling a good story. "Upside Down" proves that as awesome as visuals can be, it can't overshadow incompetent storytelling and a weak plot.

This movie looked so promising based on it's trailer. Not to mention the visuals were absolutely gorgeous. It had this fantasy quality about it without looking fake; even though you absolutely know its green screen. Also, the plot premise was such an interesting idea; star-crossed lovers separated by the science of their universe. I was excited to watch it because I thought It'd have an "inception-like" quality. HOWEVER, I was horribly wrong.

The character development was just sort of...there. And no real relationship ever seemed to develop between the characters. It went from WE LOVE EACH OTHER to I DON'T KNOW YOU to WE LOVE EACH OTHER again without anything real happening. The romance has a bad back story and the sudden realizations were too flimsy. Adam was adorable in his endless attempts at trying to get to Eden. But thats all. They were so flat in the end and nothing interesting happened. Not to mention, the excitement factor was a bust and it was clichéd and awfully expressed in the end. It felt like I was watching a poem told with gorgeous figurative language, but lacking any substance, heart, or care. The movie needed a better plot, it needed more events, it needed more character development, and it needed a lot of polishing up. Since it's main point of drama was in the romance and even THAT was awfully put together, all in all, it was flop.

However, it was an okay watch and again, the visuals of such a disorientating world totally threw me off whack. For the next ten minutes after the movie, I felt like things should be floating upward and I should be upside down...it was weird but showed that I actually did get immersed into the world.

My recommendation? GET A BETTER WRITER

I like sci fi movies when they are a metaphor of something else. Or maybe they do not pretend to be a metaphor and it is just me who can't avoid to see it that way.

And I like movies when they show who the director is.

When I first start watching the movie, I thought it was a Russian film. And that the worlds were a metaphor from the cold war.

But it didn't go deep into this analogy. But, it did develop the topic that the protagonist was from an inferior world trying to have the privilege to enjoy the superior world. The inferior world is poor. The superior world is rich, developed, and dominates the inferior world, even when this superior/inferior distinction is arbitrary.

And I loved the scenes in the cafe Dos Mundos, with couples dancing a tango "el último café". Yes. The director, Solanas, is argentinean, from the land of tango. And yes, he has this vision of inferior versus superior world. I live in a country from the inferior world. And I know, just like the protagonist, that this is just an arbitrary distinction.

Solanas is like the protagonist. He comes from the inferior world, but now lives with the privileges from the superior world.

This movie made me think about my situation. Working in Latin America for a Multinational company, doing the work just to see how the "superior" world takes the benefits.

Good sci-fi movie for us, the inhabitants from the inferior world...