BIFF Movie #8 - OXV: The Manual

After the very disappointing A Touch of Sin, I was looking forward to OXV: The Manual which promised to be a very unique Australian film.  And so it was, an absolutely fascinating and intelligent little movie that puts a nice spin on the 'alternative future' sub-genre of science fiction film.  The emphasis here is very much on philosophy.

The film opens up in a school with young children lining up to get their report cards for the year.  We meet Marie, a young girl with an obviously high 'score', perfect and yet lacking in empathy.  We also meet Zak, who has a low 'score' but is a lovely and likeable boy.  Zak likes Marie, but she knows they can't spend any time together due to being in a different 'class'.  However, her curiousity is aroused and she decides to experiment with spending a minute with Zak each year.   At first you have no real idea what is happening, but it doesn't take long for it to become apparent.  The movie is set in one of those 'not quite now, not quite the world we live in' type settings where you can't really pinpoint the date or city.  There are lots of British accents but it's not Britain.  There are deliberate 70s props in an otherwise modern setting with mobile phones but you know it's the future.  And it's a future where society is split up not according to wealth or IQ, but luck.  We now have a way to test how lucky or unlucky different people are, and if lucky people interact with unlucky people, something bad happens to the unlucky person.  So contact is limited to that one minute per year or people in your own luck class.

The movie is based around Zak and his friend Theo's attempts to find a way to beat the 'luck' issue so that Zak can be with Marie.  Ongoing experiments eventually yield a system that they believe works - that the energy field which causes the bad luck can be neutralised by saying a series of three letter words.  The scene where Zak tries this on Marie as a grown up is fantastic, and Marie quickly falls into a happy relationship with Zak.  That is until they discover that there is a downside to the system - it actually seems that the use of the words can force the person to do whatever you want with no free will.  So does Marie love Zak or does Marie love Zak because he told her to love him?  Is there such a thing as free will?  How does this power even work and what are the implications for society which has been organised this way for so long?

The third act of the movie explores these themes in great detail and throws in a tension building storyline about the secret organisation that knows about the system and tries to keep it from being revealed publicly, imprisoning Zak and Marie and their fellow scientists until they can find a way to undo what they've done.  This builds into a highly enjoyable climax which I can't reveal without giving away the mystery.  It is an absolute delight of an ending though.

A Q&A with the director Darren Paul Fisher afterwards (this was the Australian premiere of this Aussie/British production) revealed the depth of thought that has gone into this storyline and the details that you may have missed in the movie (for example the fact that each class of luck (high, low, medium) wear different colour ties in their school uniforms) which now make me hungry for a couple of repeat viewings so I can take it all in.  It's obviously been a passion project for the director but it's one that with the right word of mouth, could pay off when the film is eventually released in Australia.  I know I for one will be going back to see it again and would recommend that anyone who likes to ponder the meaning of life and free will would be well entertained by this film.  Clever, funny and endearing!