DARK MATTER

Director Chen Shi-Zeng presents the haunting tale of Liu Xing in his 2008 film, Dark Matter. Xing is a brilliant Chinese doctoral student who is afforded an opportunity to do research work in the United States. Xing dreams of winning a Nobel Prize and eagerly dives into pleasing his mentor, Professor Reiser (Aidan Quinn in an extremely well-nuanced performance). Meryl Streep rounds out the cast as Johanna Silver. Silver is a wealthy and well-intentioned donor at the University where Xing is doing his research, and she befriends him as he attempts to acclimate to the many differences of living in the United States versus China.

While Streep and Quinn both give outstanding performances, for me this film was carried by Ye Liu portraying the eager and devoted protagonist, Liu Xing. He is on equal footing with his elder co-stars and steals the camera and the viewer’s heart with his wide-eyed enthusiasm, naivety, and immense pride.

As Xing progresses in his research for Professor Reiser, he writes home often to tell of his progress, sometimes exaggerating his own successes. The letters are presented to the viewer in voiceovers and director Shi-Zeng juxtaposes Xing’s words with scenes of his parents in China who work laboriously in menial jobs. These cutaways work well. On the other hand, Shi-Zeng also uses flashes of light with quick glimpses of Xing at other moments with odd camera angle cutaways that don’t work. I found them distracting. There is also an odd friendship that Xing establishes with a local female barista who seems overplayed. It establishes his desire to fit in and “Americanize” but seems to have been included more to simply set up the necessary distinction between cosmology and cosmetology.

Xing’s brilliance soon causes animosity with the professor he has been working for and he finds his path to success and his integration into American life to be far from the experience he had dreamed of or written to his parents about. Looking for ways to remain in America he takes on work that leads to one of the most memorable scenes of the film. Xing (Lui) and Johanna (Streep) deliver a cringe-worthy few moments where discomfort is agonizingly drawn out and shame is laid bare… neither character attempts to speak truthfully for fear of disappointing the other. This scene is forever etched in my brain now. After this moment, Xing takes control of his circumstances in what is an all too American way. The Beijing Angelic Choir singing a powerful version of “Beautiful Dreamer” only enhances the film’s conclusion.

From what I’ve now seen, I’m in the minority with this opinion, but I think this movie is a fine one, especially for a first-time director. This one will remain with me, flaws and all.