Movie Review: Upside Down, a Topsy-Turvy Romance by Juan Solanas

Millennium Entertainment

Jim Sturgess and Kirsten Dunst defy gravity in Upside Down.

Eden (Kirsten Dunst) and Adam (Jim Sturgess), the star-crossed lovers in the murky science-fiction romance Upside Down, occupy different worlds. Eden lives Up Top on a planet of cold corporate affluence. Adams planet, Down Below, is a grungy wasteland that suggests Union Square after an earthquake. The planets are practically within spitting distance, yet despite that proximity, it is almost impossible to get from one to the other.

The political implications of Upside Down, written and directed by the Argentine filmmaker Juan Solanas, may be obvious, but the movie is not a dystopian satire about the haves an! d the have-nots. If it were, it might have some bite.

Mr. Solanas (The Man Without a Head) is so besotted with his twin-planet concept and all the visual gimmicks it conjures that the love story barely registers. There is little rapport between Mr. Sturgesss gushingly boyish Adam and Ms. Dunsts smiley-faced Eden. Their conversations are excruciatingly vacuous, and their love scenes are uncomfortable to watch.

A portentous tone is established with an interminable preamble in which Adam explains the scientific laws governing Up Top and Down Below and having to do with gravity, matter and antimatter. The movie takes pains to imagine these parallel worlds, with the residents of one or the other seeming to walk upside down, depending on who is looking up. The novelty of the idea, which suggests a less elegant offshoot of M. C. Escher drawings, quickly wears thin. The production design is too busy, and the films desaturated palette is forbiddingly austere.

Up Top is dominated by TransWorld, a clichd evil corporation that rules the planet and ruthlessly exploits Down Below. Adam finagles a job Up Top, developing an anti-aging cream made from the pollen of pink bees. In the scenes of him fiddling with his invention, he resembles a grade-school student infatuated with his chemistry set. All the while, the soundtrack piles on yards of musical bombast.

Did I mention that Upside Down is simply awful?

Upside Down is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned) for language.

Upside Down

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Written and directed by Juan Solanas; director of ph! otography! , Pierre Gill; edited by Paul Jutras; music by Benot Charest; production design by Alex McDowell; produced by Claude Lger, Jonathan Vanger, Aton Soumache, Alexis Vonarb and Dimitri Rassam; released by Millennium Entertainment. At the Landmarks Sunshine Cinema, 139-143 East Houston Street, East Village. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes.

WITH: Jim Sturgess (Adam), Kirsten Dunst (Eden), Timothy Spall (Bob Boruchowicz), Blu Mankuma (Albert), Nicholas Rose (Pablo), James Kidnie (William Lagavulin) and Vlasta Vrana (Mr. Hunt).