LEVELS: 2 ½ STARS. “wants to engage the brain more than it wants to dazzle the eye”
SYNOPSIS: In “Level,” a new indie sci-fi thriller starring Peter Mooney and Cara Gee, and now playing in theatres, bookseller Joe (Peter Mooney) falls for Ash (Cara Gee), a woman with a mysterious past… and present.
“I need to tell you something,” she says. “I’m not from here.” “I know,” he replies, “you’re from Bridgewater.” “No,” she clarifies, “I’m not from here.” Emphasis on the word here.
Before she can explain, she is killed, leaving Joe shattered, with just one clue, a book she left behind called “On Being Human.” With his life in pieces, he questions what is real and what is not in his pursuit of Ash’s killer. “I don’t know if I’m real,” he says. “Doesn’t seem like it.”
CAST: Cara Gee, Peter Mooney, Aaron Abrams, Jade Ma, Adam Hurtig and David Hewlett. Directed by Adam Stern.
REVIEW: Big ideas abound in “Level.” Writer/director Adam Stern questions the very fabric of reality, asking if answers to the world’s problems can be found in simulations. “The world is shit,” evil genius Anthony Hunter (Aaron Abrams) says, outlining his plan to use simulations to find out what happens before it happens; before climate change happens, before a fascist can get elected, and before millions of people die because of outdated ideologies and misinformation. With his plan, however, comes an even bigger question, Are his dangerous methods worth the results?
Stern’s sci fi movie is of the mind. There are some cool images and special effects—Stern’s resume features 75 visual effects credits—but “Levels” is Christopher Nolan Lite, with big philosophical notions but without the eye-popping images to accompany them.
It wants to engage the brain more than it wants to dazzle the eye, and it may spark up the synapses, but first you’ll have to wade through a lot of exposition. This is a tell-me, don’t-show-movie, and, as such, frequently gets a bit too wordy for its own good.
Debating the very idea of reality should up the stakes, but the volume of exposition slows down the film’s forward momentum. As a result, Stern’s messages of hope for the future of humankind are heartfelt but come packaged in a movie that lacks urgency.
