A great movie.
It really had my attention from the very start until the last moment and it left me wondering. Just the type of movie that I enjoy the most. It was intriguing and it kept me guessing, it was a journey.
I see how some people wouldn't like the experience, you have to have a certain mood to like this one, you have to be ready to dive in. It's not a type of movie you would watch with your friends or even family, I guess. After all, it is about loneliness some might say...
It is mostly grey, calm, monotonous, it demands focus and commitment, it is like a study in a way, and most people, won't find that entertaining.
Now for the good stuff, first of all, how good it was artistically! First it catches your eye with that cold concreate, the office, perfect shapes, yet then you hear the soft voice. And then the room - warm and comfy like the voice, because the voice comes from the room from the very start, doesn't it?! It is perfectly executed visually, I'd say. The atmosphere is on point.
The lead is perfectly executed, as well as the manager, but I do feel like other side characters were a bit lackluster and it could've made it better if they were explored and developed a bit more.
One thing that I noticed is that it might be hard to correctly explore the feelings of the protagonist here, it could be hard to back his decisions, as he doesn't seem to be a good guy overall, being egotistic, narcissistic and self-absorbed as he is. All the other characters seem quite flawed too, although quite more simply displayed. It is almost like they are all a puzzle that might fit together to show a picture, yet not really good on their own.
Apart from the obvious exploration of the psychology it's hard to pin point what this movie is really about. First thing that came to my mind was art. To me the protagonist looked like an artist - he had a vision and a way to execute it, it was genius as it was there in plain sight for him and it had great value, yet no one else could see it, until the fruit of it came out. He wanted the admiration, yet he also wanted to keep the fruit all to himself. Eventually it looks like he just wanted peace of mind and understanding. But then he got tangled in the admiration and fruit, and people wanting the process for their gain and fruit as a simple currency. Eventually understanding became to be not an option, so he resorted to the last thing he got left - himself.
It could also very well be the other way around, since the character is so egoistic, I could assume the whole story is about people being so self-absorbed by their own good work and talent, demanding privacy and comfort, ignoring the fact that being good at certain tasks doesn't automatically allow you to ignore morality and other people and just ignore the society overall, just because you yourself decided that. I mean, it sits well with current state of things in modern world, where people are so obsessed with themselves, like everyone is a star in their own movie, all those social networks, steamers, vlogs, etc. People do seem obsessed with themselves a lot nowadays and they sure do seem to think this makes them entitled to make unreasonable demands. Does it really mean, if you have a talent (or even not), you suddenly become entitled to make unreasonable demands, based on something that is real only for you?!
I mean, as you see this movie brings some thoughts up. I liked it.
