The Discovery has the premise of a Black Mirror episode and the spiritual optimism of Chicken Soup for the Sci-Fi Nerd’s Soul. It’s the not-so-distant future, and Dr. Thomas Harber (Robert Redford) has collected overwhelming scientific evidence that upon death, our brainwaves make an exodus on a subatomic level. The “soul” leaves the body. Where consciousness goes, nobody knows, but the loose thread is enough to unravel humanity, inspiring an epidemic of suicides. When life is too painful, there’s always the option to take the next train out of the station.
This review contains minor spoilers.
Two years and millions of suicides after the discovery, Dr. Harber’s estranged son Will (Jason Segel) returns home, hoping to convince dad to recant his findings to save the world from systematically offing itself. Serendipitously, Will is joined by Isla (Rooney Mara), a suicidal curveball of a character prone to explicit descriptions of her depressive idiosyncrasies. Their meet-cute is an irritating extended riff on their names, conversation about how Isla looks vaguely familiar, and some other stilted small talk that will clearly mean something by the final act.
Will and Isla find Harber in a dreary mansion — formerly a summer camp for troubled youth — where the good doctor has secretly designed an experimental looking-glass into the afterlife. Barren mahogany smoking rooms are littered with retro-future hardware borrowed from the set of Alien. (How is it that this old house has enough outlets for this project?) Dr. Harber is joined by a handful of quirky, cultish recruits, including his son Toby (Jesse Plemons, with too little to do beyond a chill guitar solo) and a menacing young woman (American Honey’s Riley Keough) whose largest chunk of dialogue has her wondering aloud how long it will be before suicidal folks start volunteering other people for the afterlife. How long, indeed!
Sundance Film Festival 2017
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What’s the genre?
Inspirational science-fiction pseudo-romance.
What’s it about?
The film oscillates between the technical quest for insight into the afterlife and Will and Isla’s sleuthing about each other’s tragic pasts.