Week of May 4, 2006, Issue #550
FILM
Down the Rabbit Hole bleeping lost
TYLER MORENCY / tyler@vueweekly.com
Quantum mechanics, unified string theory and zero-point energy fields aren’t typically the stuff Hollywood blockbusters rely on to get an audience into the theatre. Thus, any creative attempt in film to bring science to the theatre-going public is admirable.What The Bleep Do We Know!?: Down the Rabbit Hole tries to make these difficult concepts palatable to the general public by mixing documentary-style scientific interviews, a fictional story about a deaf photographer mixed with computer animation, extending the original What The Bleep Do We Know?! and allowing more room for some of the same interviews with experts and blends them with new computer animations.
The problems with the film begin to occur right away. The film jumps between academics describing quantum mechanics to the narrative of Amanda, a deaf photographer, played by Marlee Martin, trying to keep her sanity without providing the viewer with a logical bridge between the two elements.
If that isn’t difficult enough for the audience, halfway through the film an animated comic-book character called Dr Quantum is introduced to illustrate some—surprise—quantum mechanical concepts, then he quietly disappears until the very end of the film, leaving the viewer to wonder how this bearded superhero added anything the film.
A computer-generated blob representing one of the brain’s chemicals singing a nearly full-length version of Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” is the lowest point of the film. The sight is enough to make anyone squirm in their seats and secure this film’s destiny as an embarrassing high school science education film.
What The Bleep Do We Know!?: Down the Rabbit Hole has some merit, though. Many of the concepts discussed are compelling and enlightening. However, clumsily employing childish animation and an awkward fictional narrative to mix with them is anything but entertaining or effective. V
Now playing
What The Bleep Do We Know!?: Down the Rabbit Hole
Directed by William Arntz, Betsy Chasse, Mark Vicente
Staring Marlee Matlin, Barry Newman, Elaine Hendrix