Upside Down (2012)

Genre : Romance/SF
Country : Canada/France

Cast :
Kirsten Dunst : Eden
Jim Sturgess : Adam
Timothy Spall : Bob Boruchowitz

Director :
Juan Solanas

Summary

Adam is a seemingly ordinary guy in a very extraordinary universe. He lives humbly trying to make ends meet, but his romantic spirit holds on to the memory of a girl he loved once upon a time from another world, an inverted affluent world with its own gravity, directly above but beyond reach... a girl named Eden. Their childhood flirtation becomes an impossible love. But when he catches a glimpse of grownup Eden on television, nothing will get in the way of getting her back...

My opinion

Up-top, they always win, And down-below, we always fail.

Occasionally you come across a movie you don't really know what to expect of and you assume that it will be a tedious kitschy romantic pulp. And then you're pleasantly surprised by the overall concept and brilliant visualization of an imaginative world. I admit it's a modern version of a forbidden love between two people. Usually it's the stable-boy who begins an impossible relationship with a lovely girl of nobility. In Titanic it happened on a sinking boat, in Romeo and Juliet on a balcony and in "You've got mail" the internet was used. In this movie the difference between classes is represented by the two opposing worlds. Adam is the one who gets around the laws of gravity by a chemical formula, so he can rejoin with his beloved.

I could live with the fact that it was sometimes rather far-fetched and hugely simplistic. And it wasn't such a disaster that the ending was all schmaltzy and romantic. It's not that I'm watching a romantic movie every week. Thus, a dose of romance once a year won't hurt. The fact that pollen collected by bees of both worlds is the basis of the secret recipe, is a bit farfetched. The laws listed at the beginning of the film were already violated within the first 20 minutes. Wouldn't it be so that eating the fruit from the other side could cause irreparable injuries resulting in internal burns? If the air from one world touches a building in the other world, wouldn't that start a fire ? Let alone the little wonder they've conceived at the end. Isn't that made of matter from both worlds? But that's just nitpicking, I guess.

The Special Effects and the way the opposing worlds are portrayed, is sometimes breathtaking. It's so realistically portrayed that I sometimes got acrophobia. It's not exactly a place where I would stay. I would be clinging myself to anything i could grab the whole time. In other words I am blown away by the visuals.

The rendition of Adam by Jim Sturgess was convincing enough. The images as he arrives in the office were magnificent. The commitment he has to find a solution were admirable. Kirsten Dunst aka "Spiderman" his sweetheart, is always nice to look at and you can always see how extremely in love she is, just by looking at those bright shining eyes. For me, the perfect choice to play "Eden". Besides a delicious pun to call her like that in analogy to the Garden of Eden. She's obviously a representation of the forbidden fruit. Timothy Spall was for me the best casted person as Bob Boruchowitz. The only employee of the wealthier upper world, who tried to welcome Adam, and ultimately becomes the savior at the end.

A Romantic film wrapped in fantasy and SF. A film in which the old message is proclaimed that ultimately love can conquer everything. A nice change after all the SF and horror violence I see lately.