I Origins (2014)

Directed by Mike Cahill
Produced by Mike Cahill, Hunter Gray, Alex Orlovsky
Written by Mike Cahill
Starring: Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Berges-Frisbey, Steven Yeun, Archie Panjabi, William Mapother, Cara Seymour
Music by Will Bates, Phil Mossman, Fall On Your Sword
Cinematography: Markus Forderer
Edited by Mike Cahill
Production company: Verisimilitude, WeWork Studios, Bersin Pictures, Penny Jane Films
Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date: 19 September 2014 (South Africa)
Running time: 106 minutes
Country: United States, India
Box office: $336,472

"I Origins" is a science fiction drama film written, directed, and produced by Mike Cahill. It tells the story of a graduate student, Ian Gray, who is researching the evolution of human eyes with Karen and Kenny, in order to discredit creationists by proving that eyes have evolved. But at a Halloween party he meets an interesting woman, Sofi, and photographs her eyes. Ian doesn't understand yet how this meeting will change his world outlook.

Cast

• Michael Pitt as Ian Gray
• Brit Marling as Karen
• Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Sofi
• Steven Yeun as Kenny
• Archie Panjabi as Priya Varma
• Cara Seymour as Dr. Jane Simmons
• Venida Evans as Margaret Dairy
• William Mapother as Darryl Mackenzie
• Kashish as Salomina

I hadn't watched any Mike Cahill's pictures except "I Origins", however, I have to say that I become interested in his work. Therefore I'm going to watch "Another Earth" (2011) some say soon. I define his kind of directing like independent and major at the same time. "I Origins" captured me with the plot, the idea, the visual effects, so  I'm looking forward to the sequel.

The acting seems believable during the whole film. Briefly: Michael Pitt as Ian Gray was excellent, the performance of Brit Marling pleased me, Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Sofi didn't impress me greatly.

Advantages

• Michael Pitt as Ian Gray
• Astrid Berges-Frisbey as Sofi

Disadvantages

• The expected end

"Strangenesses"

• Where science ends, magic begins

Clue Moments

• Eyes

First of all, it's important to mention that the film is multilayer. There are many levels of two things - science and spirit. The viewer might see transformations that takes place in the outlook of Ian Gray. If something doesn't proved yet, it isn't necessary to mean that it's impossible. New discoveries are being made almost everyday, this way, what seemed unfeasible yesterday, may happen today or tomorrow. 

Ian Gray is a scientist who relies on facts. But at the same time he fell in love with a strange girl whose ideas and thoughts are absolutely unscientific. Because of her he makes his mind up to make an effort to make a discovery and it happens. Science and spirit has always been connected with each other like a white peacock: a biological creature that symbolises resurrection and hope.

The evolution of the eye has been a subject of significant study, as a distinctive example of a homologous organ present in a wide variety of taxa. Complex, image-forming eyes evolved independently some 50 to 100 times.

Complex eyes appear to have first evolved within a few million years, in the rapid burst of evolution known as the Cambrian explosion. There is no evidence of eyes before the Cambrian, but a wide range of diversity is evident in the Middle Cambrian Burgess shale, and the slightly older Emu Bay Shale. Eyes show a wide range of adaptations to meet the requirements of the organisms which bear them. Eyes vary in their visual acuity, the range of wavelengths they can detect, their sensitivity in low light levels, their ability to detect motion or resolve objects, and whether they can discriminate colours.

Whether one considers the eye to have evolved once or multiple times depends somewhat on the definition of an eye. Much of the genetic machinery employed in eye development is common to all eyed organisms, which may suggest that their ancestor utilized some form of light-sensitive machinery – even if it lacked a dedicated optical organ. However, even photoreceptor cells may have evolved more than once from molecularly similar chemoreceptors, and photosensitive cells probably existed long before the Cambrian explosion. Higher-level similarities – such as the use of the protein crystallin in the independently derived cephalopod and vertebrate lenses – reflect the co-option of a protein from a more fundamental role to a new function within the eye.

Shared traits common to all light-sensitive organs include the family of photo-receptive proteins called opsins. All seven sub-families of opsin were already present in the last common ancestor of animals. In addition, the genetic toolkit for positioning eyes is common to all animals: the PAX6 gene controls where the eye develops in organisms ranging from octopuses to mice to fruit flies. These high-level genes are, by implication, much older than many of the structures that they are today seen to control; they must originally have served a different purpose, before being co-opted for a new role in eye development.

Sensory organs probably evolved before the brain did—there is no need for an information-processing organ (brain) before there is information to process.

Soundtracks

1. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - Boise
2. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - Closure
3. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - Discoveries
4. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - India
5. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - Invisible Doors
6. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - Karen & Ian
7. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - Lucky Elevens
8. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - Message to My Future Self
9. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - No Time Like the Present
10. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - Salomina
11. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - The Test
12. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - Turning over Rocks
13. Will Bates & Phil Mossman - White Peacock
14. The Dø - Dust It Off
15. Radiohead - Motion Picture Soundtrack
16. Phaedon Papadopoulos - Waltz in C Minor
17. Fall On Your Sword  - Driverless Car

Quotations

* * *

Priya Varma: You know a scientist once asked the Dalai Lama, "What would you do if something scientific disproved your religious beliefs?" And he said, after much thought, "I would look at all the papers. I'd take a look at all the research and really try to understand things. And in the end, if it was clear that the scientific evidence disproved my spiritual beliefs, I would change my beliefs."
Ian: That's a good answer.
Priya Varma: Ian... what would you do if something spiritual disproved your scientific beliefs?

* * *

Ian: You ever feel like when you met someone, they fill this hole inside of you, and then when they're gone... you feel that space painfully vacant?

* * *

Sofi: How many senses do worms have?
Ian: They have two. Smell and touch. Why?
Sofi: So... they live without any ability to see or even know about light, right? The notion of light to them is unimaginable.
Ian: Yeah.
Sofi: But we humans... we know that light exists. All around them... right on top of them... they cannot sense it. But with a little mutation, they do. Right?
Ian: Correct.
Sofi: So... Doctor Eye... perhaps some humans, rare humans... have mutated to have another sense. A spirit sense. And can perceive a world that is right on top of us... everywhere. Just like the light on these worms.

* * *

Sofi: Do you know the story of the Phasianidae?
Ian: The... No, what's that?
Sofi: It's a bird that experiences all of time in one instant. And she sings the song of love and anger and fear and joy and sadness all at once. And this bird... when she meets the love of her life... is both happy and sad. Happy because she sees that for him it is the beginning, and sad because she knows it is already over.

* * *

Ian: It's a false positive, you understand? It's an error. It has to be an error. It's statistically impossible. Data point.
Karen: If I drop this phone a thousand times, a million times... and one time, it does't fall... just once, it hovers in the air. That is an error that's worth looking at.

* * *

Sofi: When I saw you that night, I... I had the feeling that I had known you. Actually, I felt like you knew me.
Ian: What do you mean?
Sofi: Like we are connected from past lives.
Ian: I don't believe in that.
Sofi: What do you believe in?
Ian: I'm a scientist. I believe in data.

* * *

Ian: Where are you from?
Sofi: Another planet.

* * *

Ian: I do believe we've known each other since forever.
Sofi: Really?
Ian: Yes. You know how? When the Big Bang happened, all the atoms in the universe were all smashed together into one little dot that exploded outward, so my atoms and your atoms were certainly together then and... who knows, probably smashed together several times in the last 13.7 billion years, so my atoms have known your atoms and they've always known your atoms. My atoms have always loved your atoms.

* * *

Sofi: You know you have it.
Ian: Have what?
Sofi: But you're scared of it.
Ian: I have what?
Sofi: Okay. You live in this room, right?
Ian: Mm-hmm.
Sofi: Reality. You have a bed, you have books, um, a desk, a chair, lamps. Logic. But in this room, you have a door... to the other side. See? Light comes through. It's open just a tiny bit, but it is open. You keep trying to close that door because you're scared. But you won't always be scared.
Ian: What's behind the door? Besides my dirty laundry.
Sofi: You have to go in to find out. You know what I'm talking about.
Ian: I have no idea.
Sofi: You will.

* * *

Ian: You know we could be looking forever and find nothing.
Karen: Turning over rocks and finding nothing is progress.

* * *

Ian: You live in this fairy, magical... fantasy land. It's a lie, and you know it's a lie.

* * *

Ian: There is no proof that there is some magical spirit living above us
Sofi: Why are you working so hard to disprove God?

* * *

Ian: Every living person on this planet has their own unique pair eyes. Each their own universe. My name is Doctor Ian Gray. I'm a father, and husband, and I'm a scientist. When I was a child, I realized that the camera was designed exactly like the human eye, taking in light through a lens, forming it into images. I began taking as many pictures of eyes as I possibly could. I'd like to tell you the story of the eyes that changed my world.

* * *

Ian: I'm so looking forward to brainwashing this child with you.
Karen: You know what I was thinking? What if we turn the garage into a lab? And the baby could be our first test subject.

* * *

Karen: The man I married, I don't think he would let his own grief, even if it was overwhelming, get in the way of what could potentially be the greatest scientific discovery the world has ever seen.

* * *

You may see the trailer here.

Plot: 7/10

Entertainment: 6/10

Acting: 8/10

Originality: 9/10

Music and Sound: 6/10

7/10