NICK BRADY works in his father's record shop in the 1980s
and is frustrated because dad insists CDs will never replace vinyl. He also has
strange visions which upset his wife RACHAEL so much, she thinks about leaving
him, though she drops that idea when she gets pregnant. Nick calls the source
of the visions VALIS, Vast Alien Living Intelligence System, but he worries the
visions may be a symptom of mental illness. One vision tells him that his
infant son has a strangulated inguinal hernia, and when Nick rushes the baby to
an emergency room, it turns out the vision was right, and Nick is reassured
about his sanity. Then the visions tell him to move to LA; he obeys, gets a job
with a recording company, and prospers.
It's a difficult time for America. The president, FERRIS F
FREMONT (FFF--666), is running for a fifth term, and uses the threat of a
terrorist organization, ARAMCHEK, to justify increasingly restrictive measures.
One of his big-brother organizations, FRIENDS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE (FAP -
look it up in the Urban Dictionary)
wants Nick to help them with their propaganda. He refuses. FAP goes to SF
author and Nick's best friend, PHILIP K. DICK, (hey - he wrote the book, so why
shouldn't he put himself in his own story?) and ask him to spy on Nick. Nick
also refuses. FAP and Fremont do not like to be refused…
In the film, PKD describes his novels as sounding like they
were written on LSD. I'd say like they were written by a schizophrenic. Either
way, he is an excellent storyteller, and this movie is pretty faithful to his
novel of the same name.
In some ways, PKD is prescient. Decades before the Patriot
Act (but decades after Orwell's 1984) which Bush
introduced and Obama continued, Dick describes similar measures implemented by
President Fremont. Dystopian stories are common; this one is better than most,
and the quasi-supernatural flavor added by Valis adds to it.
There is a fair amount of religious symbolism towards the
end, and this slows the pace, but it doesn't take up a lot of time. Though it's
gotten bad reviews, I consider it an engaging and interesting flic. And as a
workout movie, it will get your pulse up to a run. I rate it as ++++.
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