GENIUS GRAD STUDENT FALLS INTO A SHARK TANK
Added 9/20/2009
DARK MATTER is a harrowing movie about a young genius's attempt to earn a Ph.D., share his ground-breaking ideas about the universe, and improve the lives of his parents and himself. Well scripted and well acted, it rings true.
SPOILER ALERT: at the end, after being repeatedly thwarted by his major advisor/professor and his committee, he "goes postal." All of us who follow the news can recall similar horrific conclusions to real-life stories of academic pressure and frustration.
Looking back on my own career, as a retired college professor who taught for 37 years and who spent 6 years earning my own advanced degrees, I can vouch for the general nastiness of the academic world since the late 1950s. Most academics, despite pretensions to living in an Ivory Tower, swim in a Shark Tank--and sadly many of those who succeed in that environment become the sort of shark-like person who perpetuates it. Power corrupts, whether in government, businesses, or our universities.
Viewers/reviewers who were expecting any sort of upbeat ending to this film were probably not paying attention--or perhaps were imagining they were seeing an academic film that was kindred to A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2002) or GOOD WILL HUNTING (1998).
Liu Xing (Ye Liu), Johanna Silver (Meryl Streep), and Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn) are the three main characters (stars) of this film--respectively the genius graduate student, the helpful and sympathetic culture maven, and the powerful, egotistical, self-promoting professor.
Watch this at your own peril. By the way, I do not plan to recommend this to many of my academic friends: most of them are good souls with tender hearts, who would find it stirring up far too many bad memories about their own careers.
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Western expectations vs Eastern
Added 8/25/2009
This wasn't obvious at first, but the shakespearian ending was starkly enlightening to my American expectations. A brilliant mind is a brialliant mind(Chinese or otherwise#.Therefore, who can say as to how Einstein,Gallieleo,or#Liu Xing or Aidan Quinn)managed to rise above their peers(was it culture or genetics). Who can say if one would win over the other? Or if one or the other provided the catalyst to rise out of the fog.Dark Matter
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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An unfair attack on the unprepared
Added 8/20/2009
Let's make this perfectly clear: This movie is a tragedy. There is little to no indication of that fact on the box. You might pop it in, expecting an ending that would satisfy all the frustration you experience which builds throughout. No such luck! You start off happy, become increasingly frustrated, and end absolutely horrified. There should be a warning!
I admit, I am the type that usually likes movies with happy endings. Even then, if I know a movie is going to be tragic, I can at least make a decision whether or not I would like to watch it, and when. I was left feeling angry and empty.
Does the movie make a good point? Yes. But, you can get at the same point by simply reading the news! Do you learn how dog-eat-dog academia is? Yes - but was this a hidden fact? Do you learn that there are cultural differences that can lead to frustration? No news there.
This movie attempts to offer an explanation as to why the impending tragedy occurs.
I am angry up to the teeth. So why did I give it a four star review? My review is based on typical movie stuff. It was well acted. It was well written. It was well directed. Be forwarned. It is well... depressing!
2 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Doesn't Matter
Added 7/14/2009
The first 2/3 of this movie are spent developing the characters of Liu Xing and Prof Reiser and then all the strongest character traits of those two people are just tossed aside for the ridiculous ending. That made the entire film a complete waste of time. You're left wondering what moron wrote that idiotic ending and why. Anyone with a shred of intellect isn't going to be moved by this except maybe to anger at having squandered 90 minutes on it. It could have been a decent movie. It did have a really cheap quality about it as you never see ANY other students at the school.
3 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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The title predicts...
Added 5/8/2009
The overall film could have been a nice, tight little drama with a message except for the ending and without the gratuitous "arty" efforts throughout. Rather than adding anything, they interrupted the mood and the plot progression, IMHO. Otherwise, I thought it rated a 3 but I still wonder why I had never heard of it when it was first released nor at any time since. As far as Meryl playing a cultural air-head, she shouldn't have...the character wasn't terribly believable or sympathetic. Conversely, the mean-spirited Quinn nailed his role.
Unfortunately, in this current era, the ending was all too plausible and was truly a "Dark Matter".
4 out of 5 people found this helpful.
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