The Mandela Effect

Stumbled on to this last night and was very pleasantly surprised. It's one of those indy SciFi flicks that delivers ideas that leave you thinking long after you've forgotten the B-grade acting and production. (Movies like Listening, Coherence and the fantastic Primer come to mind.) If you are a science (especially if you like quantum physics) or movie nerd that likes a good think, I highly recommend it.

As a fan of conspiracies for entertainment purposes I was really happy to find this film. The acting was pretty good and the plot too, but I still felt something was lacking from the film. Might be more enjoyable for those who already know about this particular conspiracy, rather than for those who have never heard of it.

In reading the negative reviews here, something that pops up over and over is, "What a stupid concept, unrealistic, there are other explanations" etc etc ad nauseum.

What these viewers need to understand is that this film isn't postulating this as a possibility. That's why it's called science FICTION. It is an interesting take on a commonly experienced mental aberration. Yes, there are many conspiracy theorists and people who believe this is actually possible. The inability to tell the difference between reality and fantasy is a widespread psychological problem. This should come as no surprise to anyone.

This is a science fiction movie that states "What if?". It presents a concept, a climax, and a satisfactory resolution... which is all any movie should do. To discuss it further I'd have to go into spoilers, and not going to do that. If one saw this movie and didn't "get it", that's a shame because it has a very believable and understandable ending. Try not to read too much into things and just enjoy it as a fictional "what if?" scenario played through to its logical conclusion. That should help the viewer enjoy this film much more than if they try to tear apart the logic and reality of the premise.

It's science fiction... emphasis on the fiction. In this case.... it's directed well, acted well, the story is consistent and holds together. We don't need to know the who or why or "is this really possible?". All of that is irrelevant to the story being told. All in all it's fairly well done.

Tricks of the mind, psychological phenomenons and conspiracy theories are very intriguing themes & promising plot devices - provided the effort, of course. "The Mandela Effect" is a small scale indie scifi drama/thriller and I do deem it quite effortful, just not in all the right areas. If you want an in-depth or just a fresher look at the phenomenon of mandela effect - this movie is not it.

"The Mandela Effect" has a few things going for it. A few minutes in & it's more than obvious that the budget was small, but the enthusiasm of filmmaking is there & technically it's an allright indie feature. Charlie Hofheimer & Aleksa Palladino provide decent performances & it was nice seeing my beloved Penguin from "Gotham" or Robin Lord Taylor, although portraying an uninteresting character this time. And Clarke Peters simply didn't get enough screen time. The effort can also be appreciated in all of the visual aspects of "The Mandela Effect", cinematography's not exceptional, at all, but not sloppy either. The problem, however, is that, for a movie based on such an interesting subject,which has sparked and still sparks infinite discussions, it's just.. an uninteresting take on it. Grantedly, topics like this one don't have any definite resolutions, but it has no boundaries in creativity when trying to depict it in arts and fiction. "The Mandela Effect" tries to keep the story up and going with only half succesfully focusing on the tragedy that's tormenting our two main charaters, while all the other themes - the intriguing ones - eventually just wind up nowhere. "the Mandela Effect" will get you intrigued, then drag for a bit in the middle & end it all vaguely beautifully and also highly unsatisfyingly.

It almost feels like it could've been a bit better if they just renamed it as something not widely known & changed the narration just a bit. Promising secrets and mystery solutions, "The Mandela Effect" provides only an average indie flick with a disappointing core shtick. My rating: 5/10.

The Mandela Effect probably won't reach a big audience and in a way it's a bit of a shame because there is something interesting about the story. It's one of those stories that make you wonder and think about all kind of existential questions, things we probably never get an answer to. It's not a high budget movie, no special effects worth mentioning but the story doesn't really need them. The acting wasn't bad either. Could it have been done better? Certainly, no doubt about that, but still it's an okay movie, especially if you like psychological sci-fi movies.