Bliss, starring Owen Wilson, and Salma Hayek, takes a page out of The Matrix handbook and makes us question reality in the first trailer for the Amazon Studios production. The psychological sci-fi drama, written and directed Another Earth and I Origins’ Mike Cahill, will be available for streaming on Friday, February 5, 2021 on Amazon Prime, in time for some unique Valentine’s Day viewing.
According to Amazon Studios:
Bliss is a mind-bending love story that follows recently divorced Greg whose life is falling apart meets the enchanting Isabel, a woman who lives on the streets and is convinced that the polluted, broken world around them is not real. She believes they are living in an ugly, harsh world simulation inside of the beautiful, peaceful “real” world of bliss. Doubtful at first, Greg eventually discovers there may be some truth to Isabel’s wild conspiracy theory.
The trailer is what really cemented my interest in this movie. Greg, played by Owen Wilson, is more than a recently divorced man. He’s a father with a daughter who continues to disappoint his daughter because he chooses his job and then Isabel, played by Selma Hayek, first. His obsession with this stranger in his life becomes more apparent the more time he spends with her, to the point where he misses his daughter’s graduation by weeks.
Even Hayek is a welcome surprise. From the synopsis, it’s easy to clump her character together with the “manic pixie dream girl” trope where her job is to save Wilson’s character, teach him a lesson, or act solely as the romantic interest, but it looks like she could be more than that in the trailer. She’s a scientist, and it seems like she’s the architect of this whole scenario they’re both stuck in. We’re not sure if it’s by choice or not, but the fact that Isabel is at the heart of it all makes me wonder what she’s hiding.
Nesta Cooper, who plays Greg’s daughter Emily, is a familiar face that we’re happy to see once more on our screens. She absolutely killed it on Travelers, one of the best sci-fi dramas on Netflix, and we miss her sheer dedication to every moment she filmed. And from the small moment we saw in the Bliss trailer where she confronts her father, we know that Cooper is going to knock it out of the park.
Major kudos to the team behind Bliss. They managed to take something that looks bland at first glance (#SorryNotSorry but that synopsis was sleep worthy) and give us all The Matrix vibes our hearts desire. I can’t wait for Wilson and Hayek to make me question reality.
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