'Origin' Cast's An Ambitious Commentary with a Flawed Narrative
Writer/Director Ava DuVuernay asks an important question. Is the murder of Trayvon Martin a symbol of racism or something more? It's an easy default to blame everything on racism. Without question, racism is prominent in the Trayvon Martin case. But it doesn't entirely explain why his murder happened. I think the explanation of the Caste system Origin argues is that Trayvon Martin's murder happened because George Zimmerman was born into a lower class of the Caste system. By being placed at the bottom of the hierarchy, Zimmerman snapped and took his rage on an innocent bystander.
When you are born in a Caste system, you will almost never get the chance to change your position in society. You will stay at the same level that you are born at for the rest of your life unless you're a genius or lucky enough to break through it. Although the United States lives in a Democracy, it follows the rules of a Caste system. People who are born in the ghetto rarely leave there. We still have nepotists who are birthed into wealth while the commoners struggle to make ends meet. How this relates to the Trayvon Martin case is complicated. The film states that blaming racism for Martin's murder is insufficient. To a degree, that's true. And to another degree, it's unignorable that Zimmerman had racist tendencies.
George Zimmerman clearly had an intent to hurt someone. Is it because of the Caste system alone that Zimmerman wanted to take his frustration out on the world? Or is it because of the media that blacks are viewed as low lives instead of living, breathing human beings? Whenever you turn on the news, you see the same story. Dangerous black people who are stealing and killing. Perhaps it's not just the Caste system but racism generated through the Caste system that is to blame. If Martin was a white man wearing a hoody, would he have lived? The reason Zimmerman called the police in the first place was because he saw a black person wandering about his neighborhood in the middle of the night. But it's not racism alone that made Zimmerman go postal on an innocent kid. That's what the film's protagonist is driving at.
Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) is approached to write a book on why the Trayvon Martin case happened. Director Ava DuVuernay tells the tale of a woman who's encountered a sudden degree of immeasurable loss. Her husband Brett (Jon Bernthal) has unexpectedly passed away, and her mother dies as shortly after his passing. With so much loss, Isabel is driven to finish her book as she thinks there's a connection between her mother's death and the Caste system.
Origin is a delicate story mixed with strong social commentary. When it's tender, it's perhaps a bit too delicate as the loss Isabel faces becomes a central motif of the story to the point where it feels repetitive. When Isabel loses her husband and mother, the movie dedicates almost its entire length to Isabel reconciling her agony crossed with her thesis on the Caste system. I like that the film doesn't just blow over their deaths, but it becomes such a center point to the story I wonder if Ava DuVuernay didn't have much material to base any of the central drama on.
I get that Isabel wants to generate her loss into action. However, its emotions don't come through as strongly as they should. The film even sometimes hinders on melodrama. There's a particular scene where Isabel is at a funeral. In one shot, the camera is at a front, flat angle that pushes in on Isabel as she almost looks directly into the camera while she's weeping. It’s as if Ava DuVuernay was trying to show off how much emotion Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor can generate rather than having the film produce something that feels real to the audience. It's a corny shot that took me out of a crucial scene.
Origin is much more of a social commentary on the "democracy" America uses to systematically assign its citizens placement than it is a soaring drama. Isabel travels from Germany to India to trace the correlation between the Caste system between Nazi Germany and India to America. There's a subplot where Isabel is narrating her book, drawing connections to a black couple who witness the change in Fascism in Germany, causing them to want to leave so they don't fall victim to the Nazis.
How well this interconnected plot works is mixed. Furthermore, there's a scene where the Nazis are formulating their system of oppressing Jews based on America's use of hierarchy. It's certainly an interesting scene, but it falls flat when there are actors with German accents speaking English so the audience doesn't have to read subtitles, dumbing down the scene's authenticity. Origin is ambitious yet choppy. It's a unique look into systemic racism being only part of the problem yet does little to make its message soar.
How the film links every event together into the Caste system is interesting, yet it works more as a political/human argument rather than a compelling drama. Ava DuVuernay has difficulty keeping all the narrative balls in court, rendering an insightful yet flat picture. Don't get me wrong. It makes some fascinating points, but is it enough for a narrative film to work? Not really.
DuVuernay also traces a comparison to India's treatment of the Dalits to its higher-earning members. The Dalits are treated like shit, as they're mostly assigned to pick up shit from the sewers with their bare hands. The film would have worked better as a documentary. It's filled with facts that don't directly impact its protagonist, who's more of a wealthy on-looker tackling complex topics. Isabel just isn't that interesting of a protagonist. For all its efforts, Origin is a dry look into America's placement of its citizens, weaving plot threads together in a messy narrative that does little to enthrall.
