I Origins review

By: I. Doherty

The movie ‘I Origins’ is a Science fiction romantic drama linked to reincarnation directed and produced by Mike Cahill. This movie revolves around the life of a biologist, Dr. Ian Grey, which is obsessed with the human iris. Together with his colleagues Kenny and Karen, Dr. Grey wants to get to the bottom of the evolution of the eye. He soon falls in love with a girl with beautiful eyes named Sofi. Later on in the movie, Sofi has an unfortunate death. When Dr. Grey loses her, he sets out to see if he can find someone with similar eyes.   
 
The movie fast forwards seven years and Dr.Grey and his colleague Karen are married and are expecting their firstborn. Karen catches Ian looking at old photos and videos of Sofi on his computer, when Karen questions him, he says he would never have ended up with her, but he never got the closure he needed after her unexpected death.  After their baby is born, the hospital takes an iris scan of the baby and the results identify him as a certain Paul Edgar Dairy, but later on, the problem disappears.  
 
After Ian and Karen get suspicious about an unconventional test on their baby, they decide to investigate Doctor Simmons who apparently was one of the five people with full access to the iris scan database. After Ian runs some tests of various people’s eyes they get a hit for Sofi, whose iris scan matches one made in India just three months prior, years after Sofi’s Death. Although Ian starts out as an atheist, this scientist very fundamental beliefs get shaken when he does indeed find a match in a young girl who may be his lost love’s reincarnation. 
 
After getting ahold of an orphan girl named Solamina whose eyes apparently matches Sofi’s he feels rather foolish running the tests to see if she is somehow linked to Sofi’s memories. After deciding to let her go, their eyes meet and they start staring at each other with a certain recognition, tears start streaming down both their faces as they walk down the stairs. They step outside from the dark interior into the light, and now both of them have finally gotten the closure they have been waiting for, for years.  
 
‘I Origins’ is a film about how love and destiny can lead us to different revelations that we couldn't have possibly reached. Cahill’s emotional approach to filmmaking gets to the truth of how love has the ability to change a charted course in a memorable way.