"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.
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.