Hate Jared Leto All You Want, but This 2009 Forgotten Film Is a Mind-Bending Masterpiece
The actor has had many hits and misses throughout his career, but this incredible story is rarely mentioned along with his more successful projects.
Jared Leto is a controversial figure — his fans adore him (sometimes a little too much), and other people absolutely hate him. His weird hit-and-miss acting career doesn't make the situation any easier.
While Leto can undoubtedly act, as evidenced by his incredible performances in 2000's Requiem for a Dream, in which he portrayed struggling heroin addict Harry Goldfarb, and 2013's Dallas Buyers Club, in which he played Rayon, an HIV-positive trans woman, he can also be ridiculously awful on screen.
In 2022's Morbius, which became famous for all the wrong reasons, he was just horribly bland, while his performances in 2016's Suicide Squad and 2021's House of Gucci were almost painful to watch.
But there's another Jared Leto movie that, for some reason, rarely gets mentioned, even though it may be the most unique, mind-bending masterpiece of his entire career.
Released in 2009, Mr. Nobody is a sci-fi drama that digs deep into the so-called "butterfly effect," which revolves around the last mortal man on Earth (as humanity became immortal) reminiscing about his life on his deathbed.
The trick is that Nemo Nobody, played by Leto, is basically living every single possible life at the same time, making his story incredibly convoluted and following numerous timelines depending on the choices he made (or didn't make) throughout his long life.
While the film received mixed reviews, this was largely due to its complicated structure, which many viewers found very confusing.
Mr. Nobody features some incredible acting from almost the entire cast, which in addition to Leto includes Sarah Polley, Diane Kruger, Rhys Ifans, and Natasha Little.
It's definitely not for everyone, but if you don't mind the very complex plot structure and the rather slow pacing, you might enjoy this incredible story about choices and consequences, as few movies delve into this topic as deeply as Mr. Nobody.