Dark Matter

I started watching this film with the IMDb reviews in mind. Nothing could prepare me to what I have seen. Definitely a great director. The story is told with subtlety, depression is painted with soft strokes, one almost doesn't even know what caused it. A story of minimal events that makes a life. Strangely, and I feel sorry to say that, it is the first Chinese film I have seen that embraces foreign culture, and in such a way. The only thing that is bad in this film are the title credits and the end which is maybe too dramatic, but beautiful. Watch it. Yes, I am watching the end right now, too dramatic, and the end credits look like the start one. Great film.

"Dark Matter" is a fantastic movie. For those frustrated with academic politics or anybody who enjoys a simple movie told well, shot well and acted brilliantly, should see Dark Matter.

The writer/director got it right. (Not necessarily details surrounding previous incidents that this may be based on), but the overall attitude of the students, and professors at the university are portrayed perfectly.

The story follows a brilliant Chinese student at an American University trying to get his Ph.D. under a successful and respected professor (played by Aidan Quinn). They showed us everything we needed to know about the main character, including contrasts to his fellow Chinese students with very effective, subtle scenes.

For the subtlety, effectiveness, simplicity, and brilliance of everything in this movie, "Dark Matter" is one of the best recent films made.

For a film based on a true story, it could have been much better, much deeper, much more involving. This movie is overly simplistic, too straightforward. Everything is black or white, good or bad. Reality is never like this. A pity really, the premise is actually fascinating. The screenplay should have stuck much more to the truth, to actual events, they should have tried to portrait the characters faithfully, without trying to 'simplify' things for the viewer, to make the film more 'stylistically viable'.

Oh yes, and this is one of the few movies (if not the only one) where Merryl Streeps presence was totally unnoticeable, if not unnecessary.

I watched this with several friends and it was interesting to see who was surprised by the ending and who wasn't. Let there be no doubt, there is a great subject for a plot here. Forget that its based on a true story because its not - that's just marketing and fodder for pointless forum discussions.

What really hurt this movie were the pointless special effects and overly exaggerated sentimental shots, mostly featuring Meryl Streep, interspersed throughout the movie - typically after a scene where the protagonist experiences success or failure. There are only a handful of these shots and they only last seconds – but they are schmaltzy in an otherwise very believable movie. If you're watching even somewhat closely, they give away the movie very quickly.

I'll bet Shi-Zheng Chen goes on eventually to make a truly great movie. This one is about half way there.

No one can know what is in the mind of another-especially in the case of mass murder. Shi-Zheng Chen, director of DARK MATTER, has created a fresh vision of America from the point of view of a recent arrival to this country. Liu Ying, masterfully played by Ye Liu, is a Chinese graduate student who has come to the US to study Cosmology with a professor that he has idolized his entire life. Ying's life seems to be filled with unlimited possibility, and the answers to all of his dreams and wishes seem just around the corner. DARK MATTER's forte is the portrayal of the energized spirit in this young graduate student. The film is shot in Big Sky country of Utah, and this location perfectly mirrors this limitless potential. Ying's area of study is the examination of dark and uncharted areas of the cosmos which seem to exert dramatic effects on the nature of life. These 'dark areas' are mirrored in the clandestine machinations of the politics of graduate school. It seems that the unfettered life of the mind only works if new ideas are able to fit within intellectual processes which have been well established over time. And this becomes the dilemma of the film. How can the free and uninhibited flow of ideas intersect with the rigidity of higher education? The sudden and shocking climax to the movie is a resolution to this issue, although certainly not a fair or just one. DARK MATTER shows how violence can be the inescapable consequence of murdered hope.