Retrospective: Nirvana (1997)

NIRVANA (1997)

A Film Review
Copyright Dragan Antulov 2003

JOHNNY MNEMONIC taught many to run for the hills whenever
they hear words "cyberpunk" and "new movie" used in the same
sentence. Until MATRIX it was fashionable to blame Hollywood and
its usual lack of creativity for the fact that "cyberpunk" - one of the
most popular phenomena of science fiction literature - never
managed to transcend its popularity into the realm of movies. This
inability, however, wasn't characteristic of Hollywood, and this could
be seen in NIRVANA, 1997 Italian science fiction film directed by
Gabriele Salvatores.

The plot takes place at Christmas 2005, in a futuristic megalopolis
called "Northern Agglomerate". Jimi (played by Christopher
Lambert) is successful computer game designer who discovers that
his latest game "Nirvana" has been infected by mysterious virus few
days before official release. As a result, Solo (played by Diego
Abantuono), game's protagonist, has gained consciousness and
quickly became tired of repeating same actions and same lines all
over again. Solo asks his creator to erase game and Jimi agrees. He
travels to the city's dark underworld to find hackers that would
penetrate game company's security and help him erase the game. In
the meantime, Jimi also tries to locate his missing girlfriend Lisa
(played by Emmanuelle Seigner).

Like many failed "cyberpunk" movies, NIRVANA found its
inspiration in works of Philip K. Dick mixed with some fashionable
concepts of Oriental philosophy. Combination of futurism and noire,
that had worked so well in BLADE RUNNER, is also present here
and enhanced with the cast Salvatores had used with great success in
MEDITERRANEO. But the suspension of disbelief necessary for
viewers to accept strange futuristic world has been shattered by the
bad casting - Christopher Lambert and Emmanuelle Seigner look too
pretty for gritty futuristic world and their characters actually don't do
much in the whole movie. The plot isn't much better, being
compilation of bad 1980s and 1990s cyberpunk cliches. The only
good thing about NIRVANA, apart from actors in supporting roles is
production design that makes very credible and atmospheric world
of future megalopolis. However, those who watch this film with a
desire for good science fiction would be far from bliss.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

Review written on November 21st 2003


Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax
http://film.purger.com - Filmske recenzije na hrvatskom/Movie Reviews in
Croatian
http://www.ofcs.org - Online Films Critics Society

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X-RT-RatingText: 3/10