Bliss is a allegory come drama about a listless addict Greg(Owen Wilson) who meets a manic pixie dream girl with an edge Isabel(Selma Hayek) who convinces him the world he leaves in is a similuation all while they take various drugs in the form of colored crystals which alter their (perhaps perception of) reality.
Wilson is miscast and approaches the character with an apathy and lack of effort that are presumably an attempt at character, but he is overmatched by the thinly drawn needlessly convoluted script. Hayek fairs much better, holding the movie together by shear force of will and star power. She's delightfully unhinged and mercurial but even with the full force of her considerable talent she's unable to drag the narrative from the psuedo-philsophical swamp. Nesta Cooper as Greg's daughter Emily is emotional and sincere but she too is unable to rest any sense or enjoyment from the dregs of the script.
Visually intriguing with a mostly effective and unassertive soundtrack the production is competent but the design elements also cannot transcend the boorish story. Whether the realities Greg is experiencing are "real" is a main tension of the script but there seems to be no actual stakes and neither "reality" comes across as real and as such there is no investment to be had, either in the two worlds or in Greg. The "questions" raised are a fumbling rehash of what was done so well in The Matrix twenty years ago and in Bliss come across as the stoned ramblings of an undergrad.
A stilted, ineffective, tone deaf allegory for addiction written by someone who knows nothing about it.
Currently streaming on Amazon.
Don't See It.
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