Genre: Quirky Comedy/Drama/part Sci-Fi

Director: Wes Anderson or Taika Waititi

Writer: Simon Pegg or Joss Whedon

Actors: Elijah Wood, Charlie Day, Zach Galifianakis etc

 

Charlie Day & Elijah Wood both work as Park Rangers in a giant Yellowstone-like National Park. Charlie Day is the opposite of everything Elijah Wood’s character stands for. The chaos to his order. Zach Galifianakis as the head of the Forest Rangers. Charlie Day is the veteran and Elijah Wood is the rookie being trained. Starts as a sort of “Day in the life of” scenario following Elijah on his first day of training at the Park. Charlie is a bit deshoveled and irritable,  he isn’t as devoted to the idea of the park as Elijah is.

They are sent to investigate an anomaly with a gigantic redwood tree in the forest. Elijah believes that Charlie doesn’t know what he’s doing and thus has no respect for him, which leads to him digging further into the anamoly with the tree. The tree’s identification is unknown to the public as it is the oldest known tree in the world. Elijah falls into a hole deep in the roots… the tree is one of the few spots on the planet that are in direct contact with the flow of the universe. This is a thread of connection between dimensions.

The rest of the story follows  Elijah’s character as he tries to find a way back to his dimension, but he never finds it. He can only enter the tree and fall into other different dimensions, there seems to be no rewind, or discernible path, between them. From here we can have fun with repeating the actors as slightly different versions of their characters in each dimension, sometimes they don’t even recognize or know Elijah’s character. He also has a doppelganger in each new dimension, but he doesn’t think of this right away. He eventually stumbles upon a dimension in which he happens to be an artist and finds peace in this new life. The message of the movie is that life is what you make of it, you may not have been born into royalty or fame and fortune, but sometimes you have to make the best of your situation. Elijah ends up impersonating himself and taking over this life and making the best of it.

I would peg the humor of the film as not exactly slapstick or modern humor, but rather just a weird ambiance with an embrace of the unknown and whimsy. Trippy and existential with lots of practical effects, I feel like a lot could be done with the premise and that a lot could be said with the ideas at hand. Personally I’m at a point where I’d like more unexpected turns being taken in films. Unpredictability is something I adore when I encounter it in films and keeping a fresh take on big ideas could be worthwhile!