[rating=7.00]
Scientific proof of an afterlife would be the discovery to end all discoveries. Man’s search for meaning would be entirely changed and our relationship to existence would be altered forever. How would you react if you knew that your final breaths were the forebear of a different, potentially better, life? Would this life even be worth it?
These are the questions explored in The Discovery, the latest original film in Netflix’s increasing arsenal of independent films. Here, proof of an existence beyond our own have a dystopic effect on the collective psyche of humanity. Millions take their own lives as we struggle to come to terms with the implications of the titular discovery.
Director Charlie McDowell (The One I Love) crafts a remarkable work of speculative fiction that plunges headlong into an ocean of existential angst. This isn’t a movie that’s overly concerned with what happens when we die so much as what happens to the living when we know that death is a new beginning. How untethered might we become if we know that life, at least some form of life, goes on?
This is just one of the questions that plagues Will (Jason Segel) a neurologist whose father (Robert Redford) makes the discovery. It’s been two years since the afterlife has been proven, and in that time over 4 million people have taken their lives in order to move on to the next world. Will remains unconvinced that his father has found what he thinks he’s found as he makes his way home for the first time in several years. He arrives to find that his father is now the leader of a sort of cult comprised of suicide survivors attempting to find new purpose in their lives as his father stands on the verge of another breakthrough. Complicating matters is Will’s burgeoning relationship with Isla (Rooney Mara) who questions whether or not life is still worth living.
The Discovery is a sparse, emotional film that’s primarily focused on earthly concerns. At its core, this a film about the effects of tragedy and trauma on the human spirit. How do we move on from grief? Can regrets be overcome? That there’s an afterlife—and you’ll note the complete lack of mention for either Heaven or Hell—is little but an inciting incident from which McDowell and co-writer Justin Lader (who also co-wrote The One I Love) explore crisis and grief.
The slow pace of the film may be off-putting for some viewers; The Discovery is carefully unwound, giving us information bit by bit as the lives of its characters are explored in some detail. Tantalizing tidbits are offered up sporadically, offering us new clues about the ultimate puzzle as the narrative carefully leads us down its rabbit hole. Never relying solely in its premise, however, the film offers viewers a slow burning meditation to compel us further and further along.
While not particularly memorable, The Discovery still offers an interesting, taut take on humanity’s nature as it explores what it means to grieve. We’re given just enough carrots to hold our interest through the end, which itself offers a twist that feels somewhat undeserved. Still, while the Big Reveal might feel somewhat corny, it never really lessens the overall emotion of the film as a whole.
More than anything, The Discovery feels like a prototype for the kind of original content Netflix wants to explore. This is a movie that works best as a direct to streaming release, where its audience will be better able to find it than if it just played in the arthouse cinemas of New York and LA. Netflix is starting to come into its own as a source for original filmmaking. Though they haven’t quite figured out their formula just yet, this film feels like a step in the right direction.
If you expect to have your mind blown, The Discovery is not the film for you. This is little more than a variation on the themes that science fiction has been exploring for decades now. In fact, similar stories have been told in better ways numerous times over the years. That neither negates this film’s existence nor lessens the impact it does have, however. Even without anything truly memorable or mind blowing, it always remains a compelling watch that explores its themes with sophistication. In the end, it’s good at what it does and brings an interesting perspective to the discussion.
The Discovery is now available on Netflix.
