Pedro Morelli’s wildly imaginative Zoom captures a sort of reality that we do not come to expect from Canadian films, (which despite having a Brazilian director, features a number of Canadians in supporting roles).

While the big name star of the movie is Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal, the number of Canadians that populate the world of Zoom, from Don McKellar to Jason Priestley, to Alison Pill and Tyler Labine, suggest that the “multiverse” that Morelli has brought into motion is very Canuck-heavy and featuring locations within Canada that we know very well.

It is tough to describe the action without giving away too much, (the fun of Zoom comes in the discovery process, but by way of introduction, Emma (Pill) and Bob (Labine) are two employees in a strange factory that are sleeping together on their lunch breaks. A comment that Bob makes inspires Emma to seek out a new pair of breasts, and the ones that she receives are comically large. The second story finds Bernal, as Edward, an actor that experiences a different sort of bodily horror, (and what is more, this section is animated through rotoscoping). Lastly, a storyline involving Mariana Ximenez’ Michelle is fairly straightforward, until it gets really weird.

The stories end up connecting in a very fascinating way, until we almost, but not quite, lose touch which with reality of which one is which one and how they are interrelated. Zoom is a fantastic film for a philosophy major to see and ponder.

[star v=35]