Aman Rathore

After watching Bliss, I thought 'how could I have missed this? It was released 3 months ago'. When I googled for its ratings and reviews, I was disappointed. This movie is so much more than what rotten tomatoes critics say about it. I wonder how could people with such great experience at judging and rating movies can miss this. It raises so many fundamental questions about life, our existence in it, and our being. About what is reality, what we can consider as reality on our own illusory volition and imaginary manifestations. In the movie, towards the end there comes a point where the protagonist Greg realizes as his friend teases the policemen holding an instrument in her hand (what happens after to her is not shown and that leaves the audience to wonder), that real world is the one where responsibilities exist and we have to be present for the people we really care about as Greg checks himself into a rehab clinic to leave that blissful world for good. The movie sends a strong message that as humans living in a society our choices matter and they affect the world around us, and even though drugs could serve as a means to temporarily escape from a difficult reality and help us to manifest our own blissful reality, in the end the choice remains with us to decide where do we want to stay. The actors are convincing in their roles, and depict interesting acting skills in different scenes. Salma Hayek outshines Wilson in my opinion, as her portrayal of both the homeless lady Isabel and a world renowned scientist, her character makes some risky and to an extent also reckless decisions in both roles that are visible in her face and her expressions. This took me to a altogether different level of interest every time the story takes a turn - be it when Isabel asks Greg to wait for her but leaves in a car, or when she decides to take a chance with the prescribed quality of blue crystals, or when she decides to shoot Kendo. Overall I found it so intriguing that I was kept on the edge of my seat wondering what decision is she going to make next. I will rate this movie five stars, because lately I haven't come across a film that put me in the state of wondering and deep thinking that I am in right now. I would go so far as to place it at par with Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and would even say it deserves to be rated as such.