By Darlene Seto
Perhaps it wasn’t Alice who fell down the rabbit hole to Wonderland, but the human species as a whole. Has it ever occurred to anyone whether or not our experiences are actually true and if ‘reality’ is only a construct of our minds? How do know what reality is when all we have to depend on is the crap shoot reliability of the five senses? These are questions we probably asked ourselves high while stretched out on the high school football field.
But these questions arise in What the Bleep Do We Know?, a film whose eclectic combination of quantum physics, philosophy, and spirituality is enough to intrigue even the most disinterested passersby. After seeing this movie, the only thing clear is that we have no fucking clue as to what the real world is.
The movie loosely revolves around Amanda (Marlee Matlin), a young wedding photographer, disillusioned with life and its seemingly meaningless trials. After breaking up with an adulterous husband, her subsequent lessons in how to control life and reality provide an illustration to the quandaries within the film. Switching between documentary, theatrical drama, and hilarious animation, What the Bleep Do We Know? keeps audiences engrossed and on the edge of their seats. The switches between styles proves to be captivating. In fact, the animated segment of colourful talking blobs purporting to be human cells is funnier than much of the so-called comedic movies pushed onto us today.
One of the deceptively simple questions asked early on is “Why is it that we can change the future, but not the past, if time doesn’t really exist?” By showing science and theology to be different viewpoints on the same subject, audiences are introduced to an entirely new way of thinking: quantum physics, the physics of possibility.
Seemingly technical (and therefore difficult to comprehend), the premises of What the Bleep Do We Know? is presented as remarkably simple to understand. Creators William Arntz, Betsy Chasse, and Mark Vicente are able to commit a rare feat in finding professors and intellects to interview, who, while being hysterically nerdy (notably one Fred Alan Wolf), are also well versed and able to relate the science in a manner suitable for mass consumption.
Thought provoking, even therapeutic, What the Bleep Do We Know? will have people coming back again and again to get another does of its originality. It’s a film stimulating thought not only during the movie, but also after. How far down the rabbit hole do we want to go? As far as we can.
For more information, visit www.whatthebleep.com