The Plot:
Right before the world went to Hell, Claire lost the only man she ever cared about. Now, years later, with a populace strung out on a strange intravenous drug known as "The Drip", she decides to leave the sanctuary of her suburban home and head into the troubled and dangerous inner city. There she hopes to find Miles, a mercenary member of the urban control squad who is immune to the addictive properties of the popular narcotic. There is also a rumor around that The Drip helps cure a dangerous post-apocalyptic disease, but neither Claire nor Miles show signs of such a sickness. Instead, they battle among themselves, hoping to set up a strategy for finding this mysterious missing person. As they move among the angels – artificial life forms created from humans and used to serve the strung out and perpetually stoned – and head for the wealthy oasis area of Tiburon, they begin to uncover a kind of conspiracy. Seems The Drip is a good way to control the masses – whether they require such restrictions or not. Finally finding the secret luxury locale, we witness the elite letting life slowly pass them by. Miles doesn't mind such a languid existence. But for Claire, there is no life in being comfortably – and permanently Numb...not to pleasure, and especially not to pain.

The DVD:
Numb is not a bad movie, just an unexceptional one. Though it tries its damnedest to pull off the always tricky serious sci-fi style of fantasy filmmaking (and in this case, without a single significant special effect), writer/director Michael Ferris Gibson can't unlock the secrets inside the genre. Couching the entire narrative in slight, sketchy tech speak (the kind of overcomplicated carping that always sounds fake) and never revealing more than is absolutely necessary within a particular scene, you can sense the simple ambitions at work inside Gibson's inexperienced head. Since a super-addictive drug has become a certified speculative fiction cliché, any movie using this kind of conceit has to bring something totally new to the table in order to satisfy its already apprehensive audience. But instead of being inventive, Numb is just evasive. Gibson doesn't strive for creativity. All he does is mess with the story structure, cutting scenes up and spreading them out at random places along the film's entire structure. As the opening poolside home movie moments unspool, we wonder what they have to do with the overall themes involved. The sudden juxtaposition of he-man hero Miles feigning suicide only confuses us more.

Indeed, the characters are part of Numb's overall problem. As essayed by Jennifer West Savitch, Claire is basically a one dimensional device. She offers little background or information, and functions as a means to a straightforward cinematic ends. Similarly, Dominik Overstreet's abrasive asshole Miles is unbridled Id channeled through a swarthy stubbly sexuality. We are supposed to see the couple as two sides of a similar coin – she the cold yet concerned citizen, he the false yet vulnerable jock junk jackass. Though the director thinks he's fooling us with his hide in plain sight plot twists (we recognize the relationship between Claire and her missing man long before the movie reveals the truth) and use of found spaces for his future shock, the only enigmatic aspect of Numb is its unique visual approach. Gibson obviously wants to use a barren black and white motif to mask his lack of CGI candy, and for the most part, it works. The monochrome image is moody and atmospheric, filling the screen with a kind of ingenuity that the script surely lacks. Equally impressive are the color sequences, optically altered in postproduction to look like old fashioned 16mm. They give off an instant aura of nostalgia that infuses these moments with inner meaning – again, substance that doesn't actually exist between the characters.

In essence, Numb seems to suggest the ultimate definition of style over substance. Everything that Gibson does here, every carefully considered composition and expertly realized visual, exists in the service of static superficiality. It's the very illustration of Shakespeare's noted 'much ado about nothing', an artistic concept that clouds any emotion or allegorical truth we could experience. But again, this doesn't make Numb a bad movie. Truth be told, we find ourselves following Gibson's guiding lights until we can no longer make out their glow. And even then, we allow ourselves a further few minutes of cinematic meditation, hoping the plot will pick up and carry us away on wings of sharply observed originality. But it never happens. Numb merely becomes the entertainment equivalent of its title, a film that fails to do anything except anesthetize us to the motion picture possibilities wasted. In some ways it's the worst kind of disappointment – a frustration borne out of wanting something to be clearer, not cleverer. But just like the characters caught up in the haunting hold of The Drip, Michael Ferris Gibson is a slave to his arch, overreaching ideals. Had Numb told its tale in standard sci-fi terms we'd be scoffing at its lack of subtlety and smarts. But there is such a thing as too much intellectualizing. As is the case here, brains and brawn cannot make up for a lack of compelling narrative drive.

The Video:
Again, Heretic Films is to be commended for the way they handle this outsider obscurity. Given a glossy 16x9 presentation (about a 1.66:1 anamorphic widescreen image by this critic's calculations), the monochrome transfer for Numb is just outstanding. The balance between light and dark is absolutely flawless, and the occasional glimpses of oversaturated color come across cleanly and crisply. In fact, if it weren't for its low budget production values, the visual elements of Numb could easily be mistaken for those of a major mainstream motion picture.

The Audio:
On the sound side, Heretic saddles us with a basic Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 mix. On the plus side, the dialogue is easily discernible. On the downside, the new age score and frequent indie rock song stylings tend to dominate the decibels. There are very few ambient attributes to this aural offering. Such a situation doesn't destroy Numb, but it doesn't help it either.

The Extras:
For a film with such high ambitions, the added content featured on this DVD is rather limited in scope. Aside from a collection of Heretic Pictures trailers, the only other visual extra is a selection of three deleted scenes. Before each sequence begins, director Gibson offers a text explanation of where in the narrative the moment would occur, and also adds some reasons why it was eventually removed from the final cut. Aside from a moment where some oddball rebels speak Esperanto, there is nothing of major importance playing out in these excised subplots. The last bonus bit comes in the form of a full length audio commentary and it's quite compelling. Loaded with the standard onset anecdotes and important philosophizing by Gibson, what we end up with is a quasi-explanation of the symbols and themes this filmmaker wanted to explore.

Final Thoughts:
Like a perky pop song that's catchy as Hell but lacks anything remotely resembling artistic or aesthetic merit, Numb promises a prescient punch that it just can't deliver. What looks remarkable, far better than most independent films can ever fathom, ends up holding very little depth or profundity. As a result, this makes a rating difficult at best. For its inherent aesthetic value and desire to redefine the way serious sci-fi is approached in film, Michael Ferris Gibson and his mystifying movie deserve a Recommended. But for anyone unsure that they will tolerate such a scattershot concept toward creativity, a Rent It may be better. It's a very fine line, one drawn on individual appreciation and a basic genre interest level. While far from a masterpiece, or even a solid work of cinematic art, Numb has its intriguing conceits. Too bad that Gibson couldn't find a way to make them gel together successfully. There's a lot of promise here. There are a lot of problems as well.

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