Nothing Vincenzo Natali 3

Toronto losers Dave (David Hewlett) and Andrew (Andrew Miller) are buddies for 21 years, until Dave announces he's moving out. Dave has had enough with the agoraphobic Andrew never leaving the house, which is sandwiched between two highways. That afternoon, Dave is fired, taking the fall for his girlfriend (Marie-Josée Croze), who embezzled from Dave's company. Meanwhile, Andrew is falsely accused by a mother for sexually touching her Girl Guide daughter. To cap it off, the city condemns their house and plans to demolish it. Just then, the cops surround their ramshackle abode and lob tear gas inside. Suddenly, our anti-heroes are transported into a white vacuum where nothing exists apart from their house and themselves: nothing, just a pure, white space. There is, however, an upside to nothingness: Dave and Andrew learn to "hate away" any bad thing that upsets them, starting with hunger then house bills and eventually each other. Director Natali's 1997 breakthrough Cube also dealt with characters trapped in an abstract environment. However, whereas Cube placed its characters into a maze of rooms, Nothing is pure space; the only walls exist between Dave and Andrew, literally and psychologically. With a nod to Waiting For Godot and The Twilight Zone, Nothing has the makings of a great drama about friendship and war. The art direction and editing are superb, while Natali invests the film with energy throughout. The white space focuses our attention on the two main characters, while their power of "hating away" anything they dislike is a clever invention. However, the film doesn't take its two characters seriously enough and we look down on them as buffoons, as there's little depth to Dave or Andrew. Nothing is an imaginative film, brilliant at times, but sells itself short. (Alliance Atlantis)