Review of Nothing

The biggest flaw is that the film takes a comic approach to things, rather than putting 'real' characters and events into the film. Even in the film's first 20 minutes, in the 'real' world, we get nothing even resembling reality- from bad computer effects and animation to absurdly written minor characters and situations. Comedy, by its nature, divorces empathy from a viewer. Laughter AT a character is always more satisfying for most viewers than laughing with a character; but this necessarily dehumanizes the character, making empathy near impossible, and sans empathy, a whole horde of tools that an artist has, to manipulate a viewer intellectually and emotionally is gone. On the plus side, actors Hewlett (who looks like a younger Jon Lindstrom- actor of soap opera fame) and Miller, do well with the mediocre stuff they are given. Miller's transformation from obsequious nerd to insensitive boob is funny, but Hewlett's is the better character, and the only one to evince any form of empathy, in the scene where Andrew tricks Dave into thinking he committed suicide.

Nothing is one of those films that will stick with a viewer for a while, if only because it will leave scenarios open to be 'reworked' in each viewer's mind. But, given the title and the tone and arc of the film, its ending is all too predictable, in the worst sense of the term. Yet, given how little thought is given to most films these days- Hollywood, independent, foreign, or domestic, I guess one should be grateful for what little is received, especially coming from a film that only promises Nothing.