The Mandela Effect (Movie Review)

PLOT: When a man learns about the Mandela Effect soon after his young daughter dies, he begins to believe we're living in a simulation that could be rebooted.

REVIEW: Basing an entire movie around the "false memory phenomenon" known as the Mandela Effect is not something I ever would have thought of doing, mainly because I haven't shared many of the false memories that people who have been blown away by this phenomenon have had. I've always known that choosy moms choose Jif peanut butter, not Jiffy; I've always known how to spell Flintstones and Looney Tunes; I knew that the Shaq genie movie KAZAAM wasn't a Sinbad movie called SHAZAAM; and – this is the one the phenomenon gets its name from – I knew Nelson Mandela didn't die in the 1980s. Only a couple of them have really gotten me: I always thought the Berenstain Bears were the Berenstein Bears, and I thought the Monopoly guy had a monocle. When I heard that a movie called THE MANDELA EFFECT was being made, the idea seemed ridiculous to me. How do you base a film around people misremembering logos and children's entertainment? But I shouldn't have been surprised that a Mandela effect movie was made, because if a concept becomes popular of course there's going to be a movie.

That's why twelve years after Jim Carrey got obsessed with THE NUMBER 23, director David Guy Levy is here to tell us about a man becoming obsessed with THE MANDELA EFFECT.

The best move Levy and co-writer Steffen Schlachtenhaufen made when crafting the screenplay for this project is that they didn't just center the story on someone who becomes seriously perturbed when they find out the line in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK was "No, I am your father" instead of "Luke, I am your father". Their story begins with a very emotional event. During a day at the beach, the young daughter of married couple Brendan (Charlie Hofheimer) and Claire (Aleksa Palladino) drowns. So when Brendan learns about the concept of the Mandela Effect and hears the theory that it's a sign we're living in a glitchy simulation, it's understandable that he would become obsessed with trying to learn more about the simulation and how he might be able to use his skills as a video game designer to manipulate the program.

Having that emotional core doesn't keep THE MANDELA EFFECT from often feeling goofy, especially when Brendan falls for every single Mandela effect he comes across. This guy eats Jiffy, heard "Luke, I am your father", thinks they're the "Flinstones", etc. When the idea of him re-programming the simulation we're all supposedly living in comes up, it turns out it could be shockingly easy for him to do this.

Hofheimer was tasked with carrying almost the entire film on his shoulders, and he does a good job with what he had to work with. Palladino gets a chance to shine in some scenes where she displays the grief her character is feeling and other intense behavior, Robin Lord Taylor is mostly wasted in the role of Brendan's brother-in-law, and Clarke Peters makes a positive impression as the doctor who came up with the simulation theory Brendan digs into, but most of the running time is dedicated to Brendan's solo research. We see him scouring the internet and watching videos of TED talks and Neil deGrasse Tyson and Elon Musk presentations. There's a ton of stock footage packed in here. I was amazed that Levy even got to include THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK footage in his movie.

I was glad to find that the movie gets weirder as it goes along, and when it reaches peak weirdness that comes along with some cool visual effects. This is more sci-fi thriller than horror, but some moments do have a psychological horror element to them as characters question their reality and/or their sanity.

Thankfully, Levy isn't forcing viewers to spend too much of their time on a movie about a guy becoming fascinated with the Mandela effect. This flick moves at a breakneck pace and gets it story told in just 80 minutes. 74 if you don't count the end credits. While the idea of watching Brendan do all that research sounds like it could be dull, the movie keeps things moving quickly enough that it doesn't get a chance to wear out its welcome.

I didn't expect a movie about THE MANDELA EFFECT to be very good, but it actually turned out to be a decent watch. It's a fine way to kill 74 to 80 minutes.

THE MANDELA EFFECT is getting a theatrical and VOD release on December 6th.