Physics. It's mental really isn't it? The universe is expanding but it isn't the only one and they're all expanding and they're all so mind blowingly vast that they might as well be infinite. As The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy so eloquantly put it "...you might think it's a long walk down to the shops but that's just peanuts compared to space."
All of which is the traditional protagonist aquiring information for the audience, only reduced to Sophies World (Film Novel [Contains Spoilers]) style brief lessons in the field. In fact God's puzzle and Sophie's world share a great many beats and narrative arrangements. Sadly God's Puzzle is lacking the epic reveal of that particular story.
The burgeoning relationship between our dim protagonist and the troubled genius object of his affections is the subplot in the first half of the film and the physics take's a back seat during the second. To give you a better idea of how this might all mingle here's the trailer...
The film is set in the nearish future and the action is set in motion when one of two twins decides he doesn't want to go to university this month opting instead to go hussie hunting in Thailand. Stopping only to get his twin brother to attend roll call so he doen't lose his place at the university. The other brother (a dropout wannabe rock god sushi chef) need only turn up for roll call but inevitably ends up becoming embroiled in his brother's academic life and is roped into convincing the class' genius to actual turn up occassionally. And from thence the romance arises.
The love story pans in somewhat more cosmic infinite terms than the normal high school/college/university dreck you might have suffered through from Hollywood and although there is no big reveal there is one of the most sensational payoffs i think i have ever seen in a film. The film's ending at first feels understated but is realistically plausible and ultimately satisfying for that.
As it's a science fiction film there is inevitably a reasonable amount of VFX and CG imagery. The CG sections are usually used to illustrate the physics being discussed and the VFX are used mainly to incorporate an improbable particle accelerator. Improbable because it is infinity symbol shaped, above ground and tilted at a rakish rollercoaster-esque angle. It is the prog rock insanity to the Large Hadron Collider's simple pop. Despite which it all fit's nicely together, the unreality never feels overwhelming and the numerous composite shots never feel in your face or obvious.
If you are interested by physics and would like to see a film that takes some basic universal concepts, splices them with an awkward romance and an unexplained puddle of fluid then God's Puzzle is definitely the film for you.
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