Customer Reviews

Dark Matter

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

DARK MATTER is a film that will polarize audiences: for those who seek understanding of the clashes between science and 'religion' and the matrix from which tragedy grows the film will appeal, and for the audiences who demand tidy stories with happy resolutions the film will not please. Apparently 'based on true events', this story has many layers that invite discussion and reveals some facts about the American Academia that many would rather not know.

Liu Xing (Ye Liu) comes from a poor family in Beijing, but rises to hopeful heights due to his exceptional scientific intelligence and is invited to a prestigious university to study with Cosmology professor Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn), the author of the Reiser String Theory - the entire universe is tied into a compact single ball of cosmic wax. Liu Xing encounters initial success not only academically but also as a fresh young student, barely able to speak English, who is taken under the wing of the kind matron of Chinese culture, Johanna Silver (Meryl Streep). Liu Xing develops his own theory that the universe is united by massive amounts of unseen Dark Matter. When the student's theory conflicts with Reiser's theory, the negative results begin to affect each of the characters: Liu Xing sees his dream of earning a PhD in Cosmology and winning the Nobel Prize for his theory destroyed by the powers of academia and as he watches his fellow Chinese students succeed, he is plagued with low self esteem as he attempts to support his family in Beijing with money earned selling cosmetics door to door. The downfall of a simple genius destroyed by the inner workings of academia leads to unimaginable tragedy.

Billy Shebar's screenplay tinkers with the story's credibility with a heavy dose of sentimentality at times, but director Shi-Zheng Chen keeps the story moving by allowing the audience to witness frequent glimpses of Liu Xing's humble Beijing home life. The star of the film is the very talented Ye Liu, but Streep and Quinn carry their rather minor roles with great dignity and understatement. This is a moving story, too frequently repeated in our campuses to overlook. There is much more to this film than first viewings reveal. Grady Harp, April 09

DARK MATTER is a harrowing movie about a young genius's attempt to earn a Ph.D., share his ground-breaking ideas about the universe, and improve the lives of his parents and himself. Well scripted and well acted, it rings true.

SPOILER ALERT: at the end, after being repeatedly thwarted by his major advisor/professor and his committee, he "goes postal." All of us who follow the news can recall similar horrific conclusions to real-life stories of academic pressure and frustration.

Looking back on my own career, as a retired college professor who taught for 37 years and who spent 6 years earning my own advanced degrees, I can vouch for the general nastiness of the academic world since the late 1950s. Most academics, despite pretensions to living in an Ivory Tower, swim in a Shark Tank--and sadly many of those who succeed in that environment become the sort of shark-like person who perpetuates it. Power corrupts, whether in government, businesses, or our universities.

Viewers/reviewers who were expecting any sort of upbeat ending to this film were probably not paying attention--or perhaps were imagining they were seeing an academic film that was kindred to A BEAUTIFUL MIND (2002) or GOOD WILL HUNTING (1998).

Liu Xing (Ye Liu), Johanna Silver (Meryl Streep), and Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn) are the three main characters (stars) of this film--respectively the genius graduate student, the helpful and sympathetic culture maven, and the powerful, egotistical, self-promoting professor.

Watch this at your own peril. By the way, I do not plan to recommend this to many of my academic friends: most of them are good souls with tender hearts, who would find it stirring up far too many bad memories about their own careers.

Excellent presentation by Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn and Liu Ye about a young Chinese student in America whose advanced theories on the universe exceeds that of his professors causing a rift between him, the American establishment and traditional western religion as well. This film demonstrates how jealousy and ambition within American Academia and American religious institutes has sent cosmology discoveries back into the dark ages. It's a sad but true tale of how the scientific world has been influenced by the infiltration of Western religious dogma.

This compelling movie explores what happens to a young, bright man, talented in physics (cosmology) who leaves China to become a graduate student at the US university. His eagerness to please his academic adviser, strong personal desire to bring honor to his family and youthful ambition puts him at odds with his peers, university professors and politics of academia.

This young man's only support is compassion of a local socialite who has sincere personal interest in Chinese culture and who take her personal interest in this bright, young man.

When things start to fall apart like house of cards for this young, brilliant man he falls into a deep end from which there is no escape. This is an amazing study of human conflict, cultural differences and shattered dreams.

DARK MATTER (2007) was quite a shock to me, not the least of which was comprised of how bad the film was as a truth-based tale. As pure cinema, it was also rather dull, silly and lackluster.

The true event on which it's based, consisting of plasma physicist Dr. Gang Lu and his crimes at University of Iowa in Iowa City in 1991, speaks eloquently not only to the suspicion/racism shown toward the Chinese in America, but most loudly to the problem of graduate students and their dissertations. However relevant, all this had nothing to do with the true story.

This weirdly paced, phantasmagoric rendition of the true story stars the beautiful and charismatic Liu Ye (CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER) as Liu Qing, a highly strung theoretical physics student attending some mythical college. His 'doctorate' professor, a true bastard named Jacob Reiser (a very sinister Aidan Quinn), hates the Chinese. When he accepts Liu as his student, one can see the look of a wolf in his eyes. He's going to destroy this particular student because the student is light years ahead of them all.

As a run-up to the film, "The New York Times" ran the true story of this unfortunately unhinged student in its SCIENCE section: "A Tale of Power and Intrigue in the Lab, Based on Real Life" (27 March 2007). It speaks of the pressures of the Chinese college students, especially in the face of the "one-child policy", which places the entire burden for the family on the one child.

What I saw here first and foremost was Einstein's life all over again - something similar was done to him as a college student. Though he did not kill anyone, he certainly lost his mind and it took him a year to recuperate. He wanted nothing to do with science during that year, from age 19 to 20. Einstein, had he been weaker, could easily have done what Dr. Gang Lu did.

The evil Prof. Reiser (Quinn) is nothing like the professor who mentored Gang Lu in real life - but he reminded me of several teachers who had it in for Einstein, and were responsible for his ejection from school. Anyone who fails to see the horrid rat race science has become should see this film.

Admittedly, with unnecessary and weird diversions from Meryl Streep (rich, Chinese-loving matron of the arts) and Eric Avari (I LOVE him - he plays the querulous old has-been professor and I see no point in his character), it's a lot to navigate.

Gang Lu was one of a series of students invited to Iowa (ca. the 1980s) to study plasma physics, the first wave of Chinese students invited after China began to open itself. Many of these first students either failed miserably or "simply disappeared", according to "The New York Times". I ran into such people during my stay at college - they were trying to change America over to communism. I recall telling them they were very wrong if they thought they could do that!

Oddly enough, Dr. Gang Lu, who had been awarded his doctorate in plasma physics in May of 1991, was enraged that another's thesis and not his had been chosen for a $2,500 prize. Dr. Lu apparently saw that other post-graduate doctor as "his perceived rival". Clearly mentally imbalanced, Dr. Lu shot all his victims in what amounts to a childish rage.

What I saw in DARK MATTER was something unfortunate, if I may quote a reviewer from another film: this movie manages to be simple and complex simultaneously. It is also erroneous in its storytelling. We cannot understand Liu Qing without the small details I have revealed here. In the real event, few can say what drove Gang Lu to his terrifying and mad deed.

Dr. Gang Lu killed five and paralyzed one before killing himself. He left five letters, one in Chinese and four in English, which have never been made public and it seems they never will be. All I know is I shiver when I recall that case, because it happened not far from my home. The man was a psychotic brute, who thought nothing of gunning down those who opposed him. Legend has it that when the news first broke, all his Chinese colleagues, when they heard the gunman was Chinese, said it was Gang Lu.

With the way schools, science and racism remain today, it could happen again and again. See this film and take from it as much as you can. Personally, I am deeply disappointed in this art-house pretense instead of a true, dramatic 'retelling' of the tragic story of 28-year-old Dr. Gang Lu. One thing I must protest (sadly, of course) is the film had to try to protect the survivors of the real-life tragedy. If only the producers had obtained some sort of permission to render a realistic telling of that story... but they chose to do this instead. In a way it is a betrayal, because we know of no such crimes in America as this movie shows - in a way it is dishonest suggesting it is even based on a true story.

Let this film, then, stand as well as it can as an object-lesson. I doubt it will do any good.

There are a couple of reason to give this film a look. 1. It is well acted by the entire cast. 2. The story line is intriguing. 3. The story line is (sadly) believable. 4. The music throughout is hauntingly beautiful. In fact, I have searched ( so far in vain) for the movie soundtrack. A recurring use of symbolism throughout the film, I felt added a lushness and depth to the drama as both a foreshadowing tool as well as an exclamation point to a scene just played. A better reviewer than I has suggested it be viewed more than once in order to feel deeper levels of this film, I heartily agree.

Let's make this perfectly clear: This movie is a tragedy. There is little to no indication of that fact on the box. You might pop it in, expecting an ending that would satisfy all the frustration you experience which builds throughout. No such luck! You start off happy, become increasingly frustrated, and end absolutely horrified. There should be a warning!

I admit, I am the type that usually likes movies with happy endings. Even then, if I know a movie is going to be tragic, I can at least make a decision whether or not I would like to watch it, and when. I was left feeling angry and empty.

Does the movie make a good point? Yes. But, you can get at the same point by simply reading the news! Do you learn how dog-eat-dog academia is? Yes - but was this a hidden fact? Do you learn that there are cultural differences that can lead to frustration? No news there.

This movie attempts to offer an explanation as to why the impending tragedy occurs.

I am angry up to the teeth. So why did I give it a four star review? My review is based on typical movie stuff. It was well acted. It was well written. It was well directed. Be forwarned. It is well... depressing!

The overall film could have been a nice, tight little drama with a message except for the ending and without the gratuitous "arty" efforts throughout. Rather than adding anything, they interrupted the mood and the plot progression, IMHO. Otherwise, I thought it rated a 3 but I still wonder why I had never heard of it when it was first released nor at any time since. As far as Meryl playing a cultural air-head, she shouldn't have...the character wasn't terribly believable or sympathetic. Conversely, the mean-spirited Quinn nailed his role.
Unfortunately, in this current era, the ending was all too plausible and was truly a "Dark Matter".

I was totally ready to give Dark Matter a 1 or 2-star rating, but then the final 3 minutes of the movie left me speechless and took the plot in a VERY shocking direction.

I can't stress enough just how crucial that ending was in saving what would have surely been a lackluster and disappointing movie.

Anyway the storyline is about a Chinese boy who comes to America with his radical theories about the universe, and takes a college course where he has to deal with a professor who is either secretly jealous of his original and groundbreaking theories, or doesn't seem interested. I was never sure just where the professor stood on the matter. We only know he doesn't welcome the students theory.

The problem? The movie is caught between trying to tell a drama story involving the Chinese boy getting the chance to go out on a date with an American girlfriend and just becoming a regular American kid, and trying to explain his theories on the subject of dark matter in the universe.

You never really care about his girlfriend because these scenes were completely undeveloped and rushed, and his opinions on the universe never really seemed thought-provoking enough to supply any alternative reasoning. So the storyline doesn't work either way.

Also, Merycl Streep was pumping out very good movies a few years ago when her popularity really elevated to greater heights, so it's surprising that during this time her lackluster and underutilized role in this movie was created.

That ending though... wow what an ending! It saves Dark Matter completely.

"Dark Matter" is a film loosely based on the true story of Gang Lu, a Chinese student who comes to the United States and kills four faculty members and one student at the University of Iowa. The star of the film is Liu Xing (Liu Ye), an only child in China's one child economy. His parents are hardworking and striven all their lives for him to have an education and be somebody. Liu is brilliant and wants to win the Nobel Prize. He arrives at Valley State University and does his best to transition into American life. He has the help of Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep), a patron of the arts, who also admires Chinese culture. She takes a liking to the young student and sees his potential. Liu is interested in cosmology and is mentored by his hero, the famous cosmologist Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn). Jacob is proud of his student's industrious ways and says he is brilliant to Joanna, but though he initially supports Liu, he is threatened by Liu's achievements in detecting and analyzing dark matter in the universe.

We see the dark underbelly of academia and the rivalry between researchers when individuals make breakthroughs that conflict with superiors. Unexpected obstacles appear, including politics, and understanding of what different cultures expect.

Overall the film is an interesting slice of academia, research, competition, cultural issues and expectations of a rising genius who must confront the dark forces of insecure egos.