Terry Gilliam: Ranking His Films From Worst To Best

9. The Zero Theorem

Terry Gilliam's latest film The Zero Theorem was in and out of the cinemas so quickly that if you blinked you probably missed it. It was as if the marketing department - who no doubt dread the arrival of even the most accessible Gilliam movie - decided to not bother at all, and the distributors followed suit, conceding to a limited release in the hope that it would recoup its budget from hardcore fans in the home market. Which is of course a shame, not least because Gilliam is such a striking visual director even when working with a modest budget, and even the best home cinema can't compare to the big screen. The final part of what Gilliam is alleged to have referred to as his "Orwellian triptych" (while some news outlets claim that Gilliam has debunked any connection to Brazil and 12 Monkeys, the comparison is nevertheless striking), The Zero Theorem takes place in a bizarre future world, with computer whiz Qohen Leth (Christoph Waltz) working to solve the mathematical theory of the "Big Crunch" and determine once and for all that existence is meaningless. Much of this is familiar territory and if it wasn't intended as a companion piece to Gilliam's earlier work it nevertheless retains both a look and thematic feel which is readily identifiable. While it isn't his most successfully realised alter-world, at the same time you can't help but admire Gilliam's commitment to presenting audiences with a dystopian vision as anarchic and ramshackle as presented in The Zero Theorem.