REVIEW: Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek’s “Bliss” is Anything But Bliss

Is there really such thing as perfect happiness? In Amazon Prime Video’s new film, Bliss, director Mike Cahill explores the idea of finding perfect happiness, but instead of finding happiness, audience members will instead find pure boredom. Bliss follows recently fired and divorced, Greg (Owen Wilson), who meets Isabella (Salma Hayek), a woman living on the streets who is convinced she and Greg are living in a computer simulation. Reluctant to believe her at first, Greg begins to discover that there may be some truth to Isaballa’s theory. However, as the film progresses, Greg begins to wonder if her really has found pure happiness with Isabella or is it all just a dream.

With stars like Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek attached, I was hoping for this film to be a winner, but, unfortunately, this film was a total let me down. The plot made absolutely no sense. On the surface, it sounded pretty interesting, a couple struggling to find perfect happiness with a unique twist added in for flavor, but as your watching it you realize you are just as lost as the characters. Nothing about the story invites you to want to learn more. The characters are pretty unlikeable, while the events occurring throughout the film follow no rhyme or reason. To add even more to the confusion, the film ends with no solid answer for either of the characters. Also, the film also doesn’t know if it wants to be a drama or a sci-if, which also adds to the audience confusion while watching the film.

Wilson and Hayek do well with what they have to work with, both are charming and far more talented then this script, which makes me wonder why they would sign on to a film like this. The two must have found something interesting about the film when reading the script to have sign on and I would like to know what that interesting piece to the puzzle was. Maybe then, I would have found something a little more entertaining about the film.

I would highly recommend skipping this film. Even with Wilson and Hayek’s name attached to it, it is not worth the watch. You will end up either turning it off halfway through or wondering why you just wasted the last two hours watching it. If you are looking for something to watch this weekend, go watch an old favorite instead.

Grade: D