movie commentary: Dark Matter

When browsing DVDs for something interesting, I often choose the actor, then the film. Meryl Streep is an actor whose past work I've liked, so I trust she involves herself in meaningful projects. So it is I came to watch Dark Matter (2007), about a Chinese cosmology graduate student from Beijing University who comes to the United States to do research for a reknowned academic in his field and earn his PhD. Streep plays a wealthy patron of the college whose interest in Chinese culture and language is the basis for sponsoring social activities and befriending the Chinese students. The student, Liu Xing, at first recognized for his brilliance, soon loses his first place ranking in the college for stepping outside his place in the pecking order. On the level of social criticism this film not only constitutes a portrayal of the competition, egos, and politics that pervade U.S. academy, it twists its plot around the complexities of cultural crossings, brilliance and social isolation, and the illusion that still is the American dream. Finally, it depicts how highly-educated ambitious intellectuals (in this case, scientists) create a dark and even corrupt academy that feeds potentiality for violence--very dark matter, indeed.