Bliss

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By India Bartram

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Bliss is a thrilling and thought-provoking film about love and reality. It was directed by Mike Cahill, who also wrote the screenplay. Bliss is available to stream on Amazon Prime.

I had no idea what to expect going into this film, but I could pretty much figure out how it was going to end within the first 30 minutes or so. This isn’t to say the movie was horrible, but I wouldn’t exactly say it’s “mind-bending” as the Amazon summary claims.

Although the ending was pretty predictable, there were a lot of intriguing themes present in the story which did get me thinking. The main theme Bliss took on is apparent in many other films and TV shows like The Matrix, Black Mirror and even WandaVision. This is the theme of the “fake reality”. The big question is whether you would choose to live in a world that you know is fake and nothing actually has any meaning. Each of the examples I listed above take on the question slightly differently, including Bliss. In talking about the simulation, the main character Greg, played by Owen Wilson, says “you don’t know what’s going to happen… that’s what I like about here”. He seemed to come to this conclusion unrealistically quickly, especially because two lines before he refused to stay in the simulation. Putting this annoyance to the side, I found his point about the unpredictability and even instability of life to be quite inspiring and thought-provoking.

In addition, there was a theme of drug addiction, which should have been more at the forefront of the story. Without giving too much away, I believe if that was the case the ending would have been more impactful. The complexities of the “simulation” was way too detracting from the real issue at play here.

For me, the star of the film was Nesta Cooper and her character, Emily Whittle. Emily is Greg’s daughter and one of the strongest, most supportive teenage daughters I have seen portrayed in film and TV. She really brought the emotional aspect to the story, and without that I definitely wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much.

I would give this film a 7.5 out of 10. The production quality and acting were quite well done and intriguing. But the storyline was lackluster and didn’t focus on what actually could have made it unique.