Via Fox Searchlight.

“What if the eyes really are the window to the soul?” Karen (Brit Marling) opines to her husband, Ian Gray (Michael Pitt). “Soul?! I can’t believe the woman I married is using the word ‘soul,'” he smugly replies. Writer/director Mike Cahill’s latest drama with a sci-fi twang, I, Origins, isn’t just filled with corny, hackneyed dialogue, it’s an uneven, messy film that glosses pseudo-intellectual mumbo-jumbo up as hard science fiction. Which is a shame, since his stunning 2011 debut, Another Earth, isn’t far off, tone-wise.

Cahill grabbed the indie film world’s attention with Another Earth, which masterfully balanced its slow-burning romantic narrative with a thinly veiled science fiction subplot. It was a superbly crafted low-budget indie film that played to its strengths without ever letting its themes of love and loss dominate the narrative. Quite simply, Cahill exhibited mastery at establishing a fascinating tone coupled with sweeping and beautiful cinematography.

I, Origins finds Cahill no less skilled as a visual storyteller, but the script he’s written, unfortunately, is too chockfull of cliches and unforgivable contrivances that it’s hard to take anything seriously. And it’s a film that expects you to take it Very Seriously—with the pulsating post-rock score courtesy of Fall On Your Sword, Will Bates, and Phil Mossman, coupled with the awe-inspiring cinematography.

Pitt stars as Ian Gray, a biology graduate student obsessed with the human eye. He’s working diligently on research surrounding the evolution of the eye in various species. Mainly because he thinks he can disprove the existence of a god by linking the evolution of the eye between species. At the beginning of the film, Ian meets a young French model, Sofi, via an insufferably anonymous bathroom hookup session at a costumed Halloween party. She ditches him, mid-coitus, and he chases after her, but it’s too late: she’s gone.
He knows nothing about her, save for a picture of her eyes, but of course, he’s able to track her down, solely from that picture.

The pair hit off immediately and, while they’re madly in love with each other, the one thing that causes a divergence is their fundamental beliefs—Sofi believes in a higher power, while Ian doesn’t. On the day of Ian and Sofi’s wedding, Ian’s diligent lab partner, Karen, discovers the missing link they’ve been tirelessly searching for to prove their theory about the eye.

I won’t go any further into the plot, so as not to spoil what’s easily figured after about the first half hour. But, I will say that the second half of the film takes place 20 years later, as Ian’s life work is compromised by the very thing he so staunchly doesn’t believe in.

The fundamental problem with I, Origins’ thematic characterizations is that it divides its characters into two camps: people who believe in a higher power, and people who don’t. In Cahill’s eyes, religion, spirituality, and reincarnation are all the same. There’s no room for people who might believe in one, but not the other.

Unfortunately, I, Origins feels like a large step back from the promising young filmmaker: something conceived during a late night toke session in a dorm room, while thumbing through a Philosophy 101 book. Still, despite its many narrative flaws and huge contrivances, Cahill’s strength as a strong visual storyteller shines—the cinematography is strikingly gorgeous. But that just its egregious narrative flaws all the more, well, egregious.

—

I, Origins
Written and directed by Mike Cahill
With Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Steven Yeun
Rated R for some sexuality/nudity, and language.
Running time 113 minites.
Opens today at E Street Landmark CInema.