The Problem is Recursive

I love this movie.

I LOVE THIS MOVIE.

In fact, Primer is my absolute favourite movie of all time.  By far.  With each subsequent viewing (7 is my last count) I still notice new details, and come continually closer to grasping the sequence of events in my mind.  But never entirely.  There's always something, some detail that is clarified, and then a new one gets my attention that I have to resolve in another viewing.

And not right away of course.  After watching the movie I'm always left mentally exhausted and have to just sit and let my mind untwist itself out of the massive knot it's been tied into.  It's not just the story that I love, despite the maturity, sophistication and complexity in the narrative, it's really the meticulous attention to detail that is spread out through the entire film.

If you don't know the somewhat legendary history behind this movie, it bears repeating again.  Shane Carruth (Abe in the movie) was a trained engineer, then quit his job and with 5 people, $7000 and catering from his parents made this 2004 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner.  Despite the ridiculously small budget the movie never feels cheap with some of the rough edges and rawness actually adding to the atmosphere of the film.

I mention the history of the film and Shane Carruth's background because the film is smart from an engineering perspective.  The characters never dumb down what they're saying to pander to the audience even if the technical terms they use is gibberish to the majority of people.  As an engineer that is very interested in physics it's very satisfying to see people speak the technical language with real science, so that it makes sense, not the kind of pseudo-science you see in something like The Day After Tomorrow.

Even with the high level engineer-speak, the film is exciting and intense and is completely accessible to watch by everybody.  Well, accessible in that you can follow the plot, but whether you can track the plot and actually see all the events unfolding and fully comprehend them is another matter.  It'd probably take the likes of Hawking or Penrose to be able to understand this movie on the first watch.  After reading through a detailed plot summary I'm still lost on many of the details, maybe on my 10th or 20th time I'll finally figure everything out.  Honestly, I hope it takes more than that.

Omar
April 12, 2006