User Reviews

"Bliss" begins as a Walter Mitty-type film with a lazy, day-dreaming worker in an office drawing pictures of his fantasy home. It then takes the audience on a psychodelic journey of the mind.

The strength of the film was the good performances and some great location footage of Los Angeles. The filmmakers were striving for a style that combined the imagination of Stanley Kubrick and the weirdness of David Cronenberg.

The Kubrick-Cronenberg connection was apparent in the film's evocation of the macabre. The grisly death of Greg Whittle's boss; the pathos of an old woman on a walker knocked to the floor of a roler-skating rink; and an unruly mob at a party being separated like the Red Sea with a wave of Greg's hand, are all examples of something approaching dark comedy.

But unlike the profundity of a film by Kubrick or Cronenberg, the result of "Bliss" was an exercise in style over substance. The long and dull portion set in the fantasy kingdom of Dr. Isabel Clemens and Dr. Greg Whittle was was slow-paced and tedious and closer to a European art film.

It was clear that Isabel and Greg would eventually return to their homeless headquarters and that their supply of hallucinogens would eventually run out. The inconsequential theme of fantasy versus reality tried to hold the disparate elements of the film experience together.

By the end, Greg would appear to be under the care of a daughter who genuinely loves him. But, based on the depth of Greg's character flaws, it seems likely that he will blow his chance for recovery. The film is really about two luckless losers who went on a drug-induced stupor and essentially returned back to square one.

There is no way that we normal people can actually identify with how the mind of a mentally ill person on drugs works. We sometimes read news items about it, and wonder what "possessed" people to act out their strange behavior. But here, in this fictional movie, the writer/director makes his best effort. For the most part it is interesting and entertaining.

Owen Wilson, long known for his goofy roles, is in fact a fine dramatic actor. We see him in an office as a sales guy, we see him called into his bosses' office to get fired. We see him talk to his daughter about attending her graduation. We see him in a lab-like setting being referred to as "Doctor". But when it is all done we still wonder which was real and which was just in his mind, as a faulty narrator. We pretty well know the scenes on the lake (in beautiful Croatia) are in his imagination.

Not at all a mainstream movie, my wife and I enjoyed it on Amazon streaming movies.

Like many, the trailer gave me a very different impression than the actual film. It's pretty obvious that it's about mental illness, however the movie attempts to combine that with some gibberish sci-fi story about a "brain box" and reality being a simulation (all connected thru some rigged cpap machines... The movie tries so hard to become multi-layered that it becomes just damn confusing and scattered. Combined with an ending that doesn't really make any sense...ur left wondering, was it all imagined? Was salma hayek's character real? It's about as satisfying as the ending to The Sopranos, maybe even less.

Let me also join in and say as a marketer, this film's marketing was terrible. Totally gives folks the wrong idea if they're expecting a neat little sci-fi film.

"Bliss" is not a sci-fi film. It's not quite a fantasy film either. It is a film about designer drug addiction, homelessness, mental illness, depression, separation of a family. It's about a man played by Owen Wilson, whose whole world fell apart at once. He was already on the edge of everything: homelessness, drug addiction, etc.; as he's going through a divorce, his family was split. He loses his job and meets a real bohemian, homeless, street prostitute, drug addict played by Salma Hayek. She convinces him to take a synthetic designer drug and escape to a whole world where they are together is not the real world.

The film's marketing makes you think this is going to be a kind of sci-fi/fantasy feature, but it isn't. Maybe the thought was to make it one, but it couldn't fit in the drug addicts and homeless as that took over the film more than "the other world." It tried - it tried. It started well - the twist with his boss was funny, and then meeting Selma's character in a bar and how she laid it all out had that sci-fi/fantasy promise.

Then the movie goes into the homelessness and addiction and prostitution, and you get as confused as Owen's character, so by the time they get back to the sci-fi/fantasy element, you know it's a drug trip.

There is no happy ending here. Just go in knowing this is another way to show co-dependency, drug addiction, homelessness, surviving on the street, period.

Greetings again from the darkness. We each have a vision of what our ideal world would look like. When we first meet Greg (Owen Wilson), he's working on multiple sketches of his: a picturesque Mediterranean villa and a beautiful woman to share it with. Greg seems to be escaping from a world that isn't so great. He's recently divorced, estranged from his son, and evades his daughter's attempt at reconciliation. He's also taking some type of prescription drug that he's clearly abused. On top of all that, Greg is supposed to be working his office job for a customer service company aptly named, "Technical Difficulties". The phone bank of employees are trained to answer each call with, "I'm sorry". At this early point, we aren't certain if this is a parody of office life or the set up for something else. Our uncertainty remains even after Greg has a disastrous private meeting with his boss.

Things really get bizarre when Greg bolts from the office and into the local bar across the street. It's here where he first encounters Isabel (Salma Hayek dressed like a witch), who introduces him to the idea that this world isn't real. None of it ... except him. She has created a computer simulation of life and there are two pills/crystals for escape (this should sound familiar to fans of THE MATRIX). The yellow one allows Greg and Isabel to bend the laws of physics, while the blue one jolts them to the world that magically matches Greg's sketches. Like anyone with newly found superpowers, they head to the local roller rink, and take turns causing other skaters to fall until everyone else lay unconscious on the wooden floor. It's at about this point where I'm fighting the urge to give up on the movie.

Writer-director Mike Cahill was behind two previous excellent movies that questioned our realties: ANOTHER EARTH (2011) and I ORIGINS (2014). However, this time out his approach is muddled and unstructured. It plays like a philosophical science fiction-romance, but we spend much of the movie trying to determine if the movie is too bizarre or not bizarre enough. A successful complex story will push us to buckle down and engage, but this one never allows us to connect with the characters, so we lose interest. It purposefully tries to trick us into choosing whether it's a computer simulation, parallel universes, or making a statement on severe mental illness. We don't have an answer until the end ... which would be fine were the journey more enticing.

Asteroid mining, synthetic biology, and Isabel's "Brain Box", are given some credence thanks to cameos from Bill Nye (the Science Guy) and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Zizek. Ms. Hayek and Mr. Wilson, both former Oscar nominees, have little chemistry between them, and the film's best performance, albeit with limited screen time, comes from Nesta Cooper as Greg's daughter. By the end, we realize this was a convoluted story line for what was really a pretty simple explanation, and somehow we feel a bit cheated with the whole thing.

Streaming on Amazon Prime beginning February 5, 2021.

This film makes you see drug use very differently. It brings in the user's perspective, and makes a compelling point as to why they keep using it. It is a thought provoking story, but told in a non-depressing manner.

First off, who would ever name their company Technical Difficulties? Sounds to me you're only asking for trouble with a business model that's bound to dissuade potential customers.

This starts out interesting but takes a mind bending curve when Isabel Clemens (Salma Hayek) enters Greg Wittle's (Owen Wilson) life. There's a whole 'Matrix' type feel to events that occur in the story where it intentionally blurs the distinction between the 'realities' experienced by both. The 'reality' is further enhanced by the appearance of hologram people who flit around at the edges of Greg's existence, complicated by his recent divorce, getting fired from his job, and his daughter's (Nesta Cooper) attempt to connect with him following a period of estrangement. Isabel's response to Greg's fascination with his dream world is that it was made possible via animation, synthetic biology, and asteroid mining.

Depending on one's point of view, this will come across as a significant foray into a hypothetical world or a pathetic attempt to disguise a poorly constructed story as brilliance. It might even depend on the time of day you watch it or whether one is under the influence of a mind altering substance. I couldn't decide myself, although I know which way I'm leaning. I have to work through the technical difficulties.

I was really excited to watch this film. I love sci-fi and I'm a big fan of both actors. I was looking for something fun and quirky but that's not what it is. About 15-20 minutes into the film I had to adjust my expectations. I had to shift my thinking from sci-fi to drama because that's what it really is. *SPOILER*

It's a drama about addiction. A lot of people probably didn't realize this because they've never had to deal with a loved one that has addiction issues. Unfortunately I have and I saw all the signs. I understand why the writer/director wanted to leave it up to interpretation but I think that just led to some confusion - especially for people who don't have any experience with an addiction. I also think there's a bit of mental illness in there as well and that fits because a lot of people with mental illness self medicate with illegal drugs.

All of the haziness occurs when people are coming down off their high. During their highs everything is blissful - or so it seems. That's the only thing that could explain why people would hurt their families - especially their children - so much.

I think it's a worthwhile movie with great acting. I think people will enjoy this more once they adjust their expectations.