In this film you get a couple of things. One is the always intriguing John Malkovich. Another is ancient mythology as it exists in the modern world from director/writer Lech Majewski’s (Field of Dogs, Flight of the Spruce Goose) and a story which I guarantee will lead to total confusion.
Modern America is examined through a very surrealist lens, which kinda explains the confusion. Wealth juxtaposed against poverty. The absurdity of both. Ancient versus modern. The U.S. is forwarded as the Ancient Rome of today. A place of great wealth and power which seems to be destroying itself from within.
Majewski is a director who has somewhat built his career upon not explaining his films. Meaning he will not spoon feed you what they are really about. Which is fine if you can find a loose thread of the sweater to grasp upon. I could not here. Capitalism being evil. False gods being worshipped. Metaphors aplenty. Weirdness rules the roost.
There are pretenses of making this an intense film (hence the music and the casting of Malkovich) while at the same time personal. But I could not glean on to any humanity myself.
It is a mixture of sci fi and fantasy here. A trillionaire (John Malkovich – Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich) comes together with a writer (Josh Hartnett – 30 Days of Night, The Faculty), who is going to write about the wealthy man.