Review: Origin

Image courtesy of Neon.

Ava DuVernay's latest film, "Origin," is an inquisitive and ambitious blend of docudrama and an investigation into systems that lead to oppression. Sort of how Spike Jonze's "Adaptation" wasn't really an adaptation of "The Orchid Thief," DuVernay's film uses Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson's "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents" as a jumping-off point. The film is not an adaptation of that work, but rather an adaptation of Wilkerson's journey that led to her writing the book.

As the film opens, Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) is a successful author whose life is seemingly going well. Her previous book received acclaim, she has a loving relationship with her husband, Brett (Jon Bernthal), and is close to her mother (Emily Yance), albeit concerned about having to move her into an assisted living home. In other words, she's not looking for a major life upheaval.

At a speaking engagement for her latest book, she runs into her editor (Blair Underwood), who asks her if she has heard of the ongoing case involving the murder of Trayvon Martin, a young Black man who was shot while taking a walk in a Florida neighborhood by George Zimmerman, a Latino man whom, her editor points out, claimed he was protecting a white neighborhood. As we all know, Zimmerman went on to defend his actions under that state's Stand Your Ground laws.

Although moved by the incident, Wilkerson isn't interested in writing anything about it. She no longer wants to take part in assignment journalism, preferring to write books in which she can immerse herself in the subject, which takes some time. But after her editor sends her a copy of the audio tape of the shooting, she changes her mind.

But she struggles with her thesis. Of course, racism resulted in Martin's death, but Wilkerson believes she has an idea for her book that links the incident with American slavery, the Holocaust, and the caste system in India, all the while throwing in tidbits involving comments made by her mother and Wilkerson's marriage to a white man. Her publisher (Vera Farmiga) doesn't see how the pieces all fit, but tells Wilkerson that writing a book is the "author's journey," and asks her to keep her posted on what she finds.

And what Wilkerson ultimately settles upon is that racism alone limits our understanding of why Martin was killed. She investigates the concept of caste systems, in which one group deems itself superior to another group - deemed inferior - and goes about creating laws and enforcing rules that reward the former while punishing the latter.

Naturally, the American institution of slavery is one of her key areas of focus, while Nazi Germany is another. Regarding the latter, Wilkerson discovers minutes from a Nazi party meeting during which German lawyers studied the American slavery system to write laws for Germany, and also follows the story of a former Nazi Party member who leaves the party to marry a Jewish woman. Another case involves a young Black American couple who are studying in Germany, only to flee after the Nazis take over and return home to join a white couple to take part in a study of oppressive systems in the American South.

Her final journey takes her to India, where she meets with a Dalit professor (Suraj Yengde, playing himself) who discusses Dalit activist Bhimrao Ambedkar with her and provides enlightenment on the caste system that dehumanizes Dalits - also known as untouchables - and forces them into a life of cruel subservience.

Not every sequence necessarily enforces Wilkerson's growing belief that caste systems are the oppressive forces that link history's great tragedies of the past two centuries. There's a sequence during which a plumber (Nick Offerman) wearing a Make America Great Again hat comes to fix Wilkerson's basement pipes. The sequence, at first tense, eventually finds the two reaching common ground on their aging parents, but the scene doesn't really add to the film's overarching thesis.

Regardless, this is a bold experiment. The film also uses Wilkerson's own personal life as a backdrop - she loses two people about whom she cares deeply early in the film, and the second half focuses on her relationship with a cousin (Niecy Nash), who during one of the film's best sequences asks Wilkerson to explain her thesis in layman's terms so that anyone can understand the links she's making between slavery, Nazi Germany, India, and ultimately, Martin's death. As she explains, it's a moment of enlightenment for both Wilkerson and her cousin as well as the audience.

DuVernay's best work has often dealt with battles against oppression, from her masterly "Selma" to the devastating American justice system documentary "13th." Her previous film, "A Wrinkle in Time," felt slight, so it's great to see her back on steady ground with "Origin," a movie that is highly ambitious and often deeply moving. I'd highly recommend it.