Human perception is a fragile thing as Bliss shows us since so many people want to believe that going through the trials and tribulations means that one day we’ll be able to experience the rewards of a life that’s been lived in pursuit of happiness. But what Bliss shows the audience is that perhaps it’s the other way around, that a person needs to experience the good life first, and then the pitfalls of life, in order to fully appreciate what they stand to lose. In a way, it feels like a revolving door effect that doesn’t end as in the trailer it’s seen that the two worlds, that of the blissful and that of the miserable, continue to collide as the main characters, played by Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek, continue to move between them in a manner that stretches the imagination and makes one wonder which world is real and which is a simulation born from the application of the drug that Hayek’s character has devised. One had to think that in order to access a different life, a different level of consciousness, that something would have to be devised to alter the main character’s perception and convince him that the world he knew wasn’t the real one, or that there was a serious discrepancy between what he perceived as real and what felt real to him.
A lot of us want to believe that there’s a different world in which we’re rich, we’re smarter, and can figure out a way past the humdrum life that we know, and then some of us accept the world as it’s given to us and are leery of those that might want to show us a different way to experience life since we might believe that the life we currently have isn’t perfect, but it’s still what we know and it’s what is safe. When mucking about with what a person perceives the ultimate danger doesn’t lie in getting stuck in that fantasy world, at least not in this movie, but in forcing the two to collide as the brain attempts to reconcile what it knows with what it’s being shown. The struggle that emerges between the two realities that the main character is given obviously begins to break down the barriers between the two worlds as memory becomes reality and reality becomes an uncertain commodity to be questioned as it begins to wear thin and allow the two worlds to continually slip and slid past one another as they continue to interact in startling ways.
The reason for wanting to see this movie is pretty simple; it looks like a total mind trip that could be highly entertaining and make a person question their own reality if they really decided to dig into the story and think about what it is that makes the world around us real. Plenty of people have theorized that the world we live in is a simulation of sorts, and whether or not that’s true depends on how each person perceives their own reality and how far they’re willing to go when it comes to what they believe in. Obviously, many people want to go with the flow and think that as messy and as seriously flawed as it is, this world is the real one and there are no substitutes, but there are plenty of people that can’t help believing that we’re already living in an altered state of mind and have been for quite a while. It’s a matter of belief and a state of mind obviously, but movies such as Bliss continue to push at the boundaries that so many people believe that they know so well, and in doing so continue to question just what it is that makes up the fabric of this reality and separates it from the infinite number of ideas that might be taking place in an infinite number of realities that could possibly stack side by side with our own and diverge in an untold number of ways that exist within our imagination but nowhere else. That’s how easy it is to slip into another train of thought and believe that the reality we know and are born into might not exist in the manner we believe, and why Bliss is another look at that idea that might bear watching.
On top of that, it’s another way to show that Owen Wilson has branched out in a big way since he’s gotten older as he continues to take on projects that aren’t comedy-related and are bound to challenge one’s thinking of his role as an actor. The movie even showcases Bill Nye as the trailer shows, which could be another point of interest for a lot of people. The movie doesn’t release until February 5th, which gives people a lot of time to think about what it’s bound to show them.
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