The Discovery: A Scientific Take on the Afterlife

The Discovery is a 2017 science fiction mystery romance film directed by Charlie McDowell and stars Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother), Rooney Mara (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), Jesse Plemons (Black Mass), and the iconic Robert Redford (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid). The film is about Jason Segel's Will, a neurologist who is trying to cope in a suicidal world following Redford's Thomas scientific discovery of an afterlife. Additionally, the film follows Thomas as he tries to figure out exactly what this afterlife entails.
Being a christian myself, I found this idea to be quite interesting and have in a way been looking forward to watching the film and then being able to talk about it. I was curious how the film would approach the topic and if it would try to give an actual proposition about the afterlife.
Now that I have seen the film, I can say that the film is a thought provoking, well made film that unfortunately is too flawed to create what could have been a terrific sci-fi masterpiece. The major problem with the film is the romance subplot. Rooney Mara's Isla slowly becomes involved in Will as they sprout a romance, and while this subplot could work, I don't feel like the overall structure of the film supported this subplot. Most of the runtime is intensely focused on trying to find out what the afterlife entails. Whenever the romance plot pops up, it feels forced and completely out of place. A subplot involving Will and Isla trying to disprove this afterlife also pops up towards the end of the film, similarly feeling out of place. If this was the main plot and had been developed from the beginning of the film, then it would have worked and probably well. The problem is that the subplot starts around the hour mark with only forty minutes of runtime left. For an hour, the audience is led to believe that this afterlife is real, and then all of a sudden it comes into question? To make matters worse, the afterlife turns out to be real, rendering the subplot dead on arrival and completely unnecessary. The ending also was rushed and forced. It seemed like the writers wanted to have a thrilling ending that would in turn reveal exactly what the afterlife is. What actually unfolded was a crammed ending. It did show what the afterlife was, however I think it was super predictable and should have been taken in a completely different direction.
While it might sound like I didn't like the film, it quite frankly really was good despite its problems, because almost everything else about the film is solid if not great. The acting was very solid all around, especially from Redford and Segel. All of the characters were incredibly well developed, leaving them feeling three dimensional. In this case, I think that the praise should go both to the actors and the writers. The film is also incredibly well paced. Never in its entirety does the film ever feel long or boring. The cinematography was also very solid. Most of it is filmed with slow camera panning and a healthy mixture of close ups and medium shots. To me, this helps keep the tone of the film as feeling mysterious and sort of depressing.
The highest of praises that I can give this film as it was incredibly thought inducing. Even though I am a christian, I don't necessarily know exactly what heaven or hell are like. The interesting angle the film takes is one that isn't necessarily religious. Having never been an atheist, I always assumed that they didn't believe in any sort of afterlife. This film, however, introduces one that may very well be an afterlife without a God. Even though I personally don't agree with that notion, I can still understand and respect it. I think that this should have been explored deeper than it was, however I think it is a good idea not to answer all questions in a movie like this. It's just unfortunate that this was something that wasn't addressed. The film also introduces ideas of what an afterlife could be like that I would never have thought of, such as ones that involve parallel universes.
The sad thing about the film is that it could have been great, but instead is just a very ambitious solid one. I think the writers had a million and one great ideas for the film and decided to try and fit them all into the film. If the film had only focused on a few of the stronger ideas present in the film, I think it could have been the next Arrival. I still recommend the film for anyone who wants to watch a thoughtful sci-fi that tackles maybe the most sought out question in the history of this world: is there an afterlife?