Dark Matter

Based on the 1991 shootings at the University of Iowa where a Chinese graduate student killed five people before killing himself, Dark Matter presents an uneasy look at the intense pressures of scientific academia and the cultural assimilation of Chinese students in America.

The half-subtitled film, directed by opera director Chen Si-Zheng, is not an extravagant piece as his operatic background might suggest. Si-Zheng bathes the film in blue tones, giving everything a gloomy, clouded feeling. While the effect may have been intended to match the film's "dark" title and themes, it only makes for a drowsy viewing experience. In fact, most of the movie is a muted bore and it does little to set up the shocking, explosive ending. The conclusion feels confusingly out-of-sync. Si-Zheng also plays with sequence and repetition with choppy, disorienting results. Since Dark Matter is based on a true story, the film may have been better suited with a more straightforward style.

Ye Liu gives a subdued performance as Liu Xing, a brilliant Chinese student who comes to an American university to work under the leadership of esteemed cosmologist Dr. Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn). He quickly excels among his fellow students as one of the top cosmology (a branch of astronomy that focuses on the origins and structure of the universe, not to be confused with cosmetology) researchers in the program and he's especially interested in studying a property called "dark matter." (I'm not a science person, so don't ask me to explain.)

Liu Xing wishes to use his studies in dark matter as his dissertation topic, but Reiser rejects his proposal saying it's too ambitious and much too hard to prove. Despite Reiser's warnings, Liu Xing presents his dissertation on dark matter anyway and is once again rejected. He doesn't graduate, doesn't get a job, and takes to selling skin care products door to door, with resentment and anger bubbling just below the surface.

However, given Ye Liu's one-note range of emotions, it's hard to tell what Liu Xing is really feeling, which is why his transition from gracious, eager student to disturbed and vengeful failure is all the more hard to believe.

Giving the film a dose of clarity is the incomparable Meryl Streep as Joanna Silver, a wealthy university patron with a deep interest in Chinese culture and a fondness for the school's Chinese students. She takes them on field trips to get them acquainted with American culture and acts as a source of encouragement to them. Joanna befriends Liu Xing in particular, seeing his genius but also his fragility.

It's almost a surprise to see Streep in a small film like this. It's not a role you'd expect her to take, but you're grateful she took it. She's the film's biggest attribute and her character feels the most real. She's in contrast with Aidan Quinn's pompous portrayal

of Professor Reiser. Reiser never feels like an intelligent, serious scientist, but instead comes across as a cocky and arrogant stereotype.

To the film's credit, it does present worthy comments on culture clashes and the naiveté of the American dream. Although he's a science genius, Liu Xing unwisely believes that because he has come to America, all of his dreams will come true. He'll become successful, make enough money to send home to his parents, and he'll meet a beautiful, blonde American girl to marry. When things don't turn out how he planned, it unravels him.

It's a shame this unraveling isn't better portrayed. There isn't much buildup, and unfortunately the viewer feels, well, left in the dark.

Movie Grade: C-

Synopsis:

Liu Xing (Liu Ye) arrives at a big Western university with plans to study the origins of the universe. At first, his experience is a heady rush of expectation and optimism. He finds other Chinese students to share a cheap apartment with him, and flirts with an attractive American girl who works in a local tea shop. When the head of the department, Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn), welcomes Liu Xing into his select cosmology group, it seems that only hard work stands between him and a bright future in American science. At an orientation for foreigners sponsored by a local church, Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep), a wealthy patron of the university, notices the earnest student. An unspoken bond forms between them.

Liu Xing becomes Reiser’s protégé, accompanying him to a prestigious conference where he makes an impressive debut. He is drawn to the study of dark matter, an unseen substance that shapes the universe, but it soon becomes clear that his developing theories threaten Reiser’s conflicting theories and well-established studies. Excited by the possibility of a breakthrough, Liu Xing is deaf to warnings that he must first pay his dues. When he is eclipsed within the department by Laurence, a more dutiful Chinese student, Liu Xing is forced to go behind Reiser’s back to publish his discoveries. When the article draws ire instead of accolades, he turns to Joanna, who naively encourages him on his collision course.

Liu Xing clings to the idea of American science as a free market of ideas, and American society as wide open to immigrants. But in the end, his dissertation is rejected, and the girl in the tea shop brushes him off. His roommates find jobs, leaving him behind. Too proud to accept help from Joanna, and unwilling to return home to his parents, Liu Xing becomes a ghost-like presence at the university. Left alone with his shattered dreams, he explodes in a final act of violence.