Mr. Nobody

A visually striking but tonally uneven 2009 fantasy film, Mr. Nobody stars recent Oscar winner Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) as Nemo Nobody, a man living several lives. In two lives, he's a 34-year-old with a wife and children, but the wives and children are different, while in the future, Nemo is a 118-year-old mortal, the last left on Earth (the old-age makeup renders Leto largely unrecognizable). The elderly Nemo meets with a counselor (Allan Corduner) and a journalist (Daniel Mays), recalling his past. Nemo grows up in the British suburbs with a weatherman (Rhys Ifans) and a homemaker (Natasha Little). When his parents split up, nine-year-old Nemo (Thomas Byrne) goes to live with his father in one reality and his mother in the other—a situation that fractures further when his mother marries the father of Anna (Juno Temple), a girl whom 15-year-old Nemo (Toby Regbo) has a crush on (Diane Kruger plays Anna as an adult). In the other reality, Nemo moves to New York and falls for the emotionally unstable Elise (Clare Stone), whom he will later marry (played as an adult by Sarah Polley). As Nemo grows up, he continues to see glimpses of events to come, so the timelines are constantly shifting. The overall concept recalls Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Slaughterhouse-Five, the Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle Sliding Doors, and the TV series Awake, but even though it doesn't all work, director Jaco Van Dormael has conjured up an engaging scenario. A strong optional purchase. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include the extended director's cut, a "making-of" featurette (45 min.), deleted scenes (7 min.), an ASX TV-produced featurette (4 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release is the theatrical R-rated version of the film. Bottom line: a fine extras package for an uneven but ambitious film.] (K. Fennessy)