Elysium

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : August, 2013
Time : 109 minutes
Director & Writer : Neil Blomkamp; Music : Ryan Amon
Starring : Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Emma Tremblay, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, Richard Fichtner, Faran Tahir

Its about rich, well-connected people building walls to keep the riff-raff out, creating a utopia with the best of facilities, while the rest have to make do with sub-standard medical care, pollution etc…the revolt against this, obviously, is never too far off…

Elysium was set up in space to combat over-crowding on Earth. The unending settlements (think Mumbai slums, the favelas of Rio or the township of Soweto and apply everywhere) are teeming with people while the giant space station of Elysium has plush houses, manicured lawns, king sized pools. Jodie Foster is the ball-busting Secretary of Elysium, who is very clear that she will keep illegal immigrants from Earth, out using any means…And Matt Damon, after an accident in the factory he works in on Earth, is now equally determined to get in…Sharlto Copley is the muscle Jodie illegally employs on Earth to keep the people out…And Alice Braga is a nurse and childhood friend of Matt’s, who gets caught up in the mess, and also has a vested interest as her daughter, Emma, can only be cured on Elysium…

Not all things make complete sense but there is an unmistakable larger point being made here (nice to see a Mr Patel as President of Elysium too!). The film is pacy, the action doesn’t stop for a single minute and the intrigue is sustained right through, though the end is predictable. Matt Damon is good but the film works primarily on Jodie Foster’s feisty turn and Sharlto’s menacing role as the enforcer. Diego Luna and Wagner Moura also lend colour as people helping Matt get on to Elysium.

If you think about it, the rich, famous and connected the world over (the more socialistically inclined Europe being a possible exception) live exactly in the same manner. Most of us live in cosy, gated communities, with some form of security or the other, designed to keep the lower classes away, living a life they can never afford to attain, with facilities (medical, pools, schools, food) they can never have. Various uprisings (including the Naxals in India) have only shown that Neil Blomkamp’s view of where the world is headed (whether here or in District 9) may not be that far off the mark