RATING: 3/5
On paper, Argentinian director Juan Diego Solanas' sci-fi romance melodrama, UPSIDE DOWN, sounds likes a cinematic masterpiece-in-the-making -- it has that timeless love story kind of feel in the vein of Romeo and Juliet with a dash of TITANIC (minus the disaster genre), and a fascinating concept about two parallel worlds which exist next to one another in an upside down form.
The story tells about two star-crossed lovers living in two parallel worlds next to each other. These two worlds are separated. One is called "Up" where people is rich and prosperous, and another one called "Down", where people is poor. When Adam was a 12-year-old kid lives in Down, he lives in an orphanage after he lost his parents in an attack. However, he still has his aunt named Becky (Kate Trotter), whom he visits every week. He particularly loves his aunt's flying pancakes and she has the secret recipe that has been passed through generations. Now Adam is fortunate enough that his aunt has finally inherited the secret recipe to him. One day, when Adam climbs a mountain that able to get very close to the Up world, he meets the 10-year-old Eden (Maurane Arcand) and become friends.
Years later, Adam (Jim Sturgess) and Eden (Kirsten Dunst) are now grown-up adults. They already fall in love for each other, and spend their time dating at the rock where they got acquainted the first time around. But everything turns sour when a police unit discovers about their forbidden romance and ends up hunting both of them. In the process, Adam gets wounded and Eden, who he thinks to be dead, suffers from amnesia.
Ten years has passed, and Adam has never forget about Eden until the day he discovers she is actually alive after seeing her on TV. Apparently she is now working at TransWorld, and he determines to land a job over there by promoting his secret formula taken from his aunt's recipe to make a revolutionary cosmetic product for facelifts. He manages to secure a job in TransWorld and there, he meets Bob (Timothy Spall), from Up. Both of them become best friends. After Adam helps him getting a collection of stamps from Down, Bob returns a favor by helping him to find Eden. With the help of some Up-materials (which are shaped like concrete bars) that enable Adam to stay in Up gravity field, he finally meets Eden. Unfortunately Eden has already lost her memories suffered from the impact of the fall last time, and she hardly recognizes him whatsoever. Despite that, Adam refuses to give up and keeps trying to help her remember the past. Will they finally end up being together?
The idea behind the two parallel worlds of upside down alone is interesting enough to warrant your attention. Visually, UPSIDE DOWN is a spellbinding experience. Blessed with a decent budget of $60 million, the special effects are impressive while the production design is so eye-catching it's difficult not to get hooked by its two parallel worlds of upside down. All the technical credits are top-notch and some of the worthy mentions goes to Benoit Charest's mesmerizing score (along with the equally hypnotic soundtrack featuring the Icelandic ambient band, Sigur Ros) and Pierre Gill's ravishing cinematography. Acting-wise, Jim Sturgess is certainly charming and likeable while Kirsten Dunst is as lovely as always. But it was Timothy Spall, who often steals the limelight with his uplifting performance as the jolly-looking Bob.
While UPSIDE DOWN has a lot of ambitions, it's quite a shame that Santiago Amigorena and Juan Diego Solanas' screenplay feels underwhelming, yet strangely incomplete. Don't get me wrong, the story is wonderfully told but there's hardly any depth beneath its glossy surface. For instance, we never really feel the pain both Adam and Eden have to go through in order to get together. Problem is, everything here are depicted in the face value and it's rather wasted that Juan Diego Solanas doesn't take his opportunity to explore the subject further. Then there's the half-baked subplot involves the TransWorld's slick managing director, William Lagavulin (James Kidnie, in a brief but perfectly slimy performance), who wants to get his hand on Adam's secret formula for the facelift cream. During that moment, there is a brief scene of tension. But it doesn't take long before Juan Diego Solanas ignores the part altogether.
Despite its glaring flaws, UPSIDE DOWN remains a wonderful experience worth watching. And Juan Diego Solanas is certainly an interesting visionary director to look out for in the future.
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