Empathy, Inc.
It's easy to take a risk when someone else has to pay the price. Empathy, Inc. is a science fiction thriller about a venture capitalist named Joel (Zack Robidas), who moves to New York with his wife, Jessica (Kathy Searle), after he becomes embroiled in a tech company scandal. Humiliated and desperate, Joel is enticed to invest his in-laws' retirement into yet another tech start-up company called "Empathy, Inc.", at the behest of a former acquaintance named Nicolaus (Eric Berryman). But after Joel discovers what sinister services Empathy, Inc. really provides for its secretive clientele, he is tragically reminded that history repeats itself, no matter who you are or who you pretend to be.
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Empathy, Inc. is fundamentally a "what if" scenario: what if you swapped bodies with someone else; does this mean that no matter what you do, you never have to face the consequences? The prologue to the film establishes that Joel is an entrepreneur who is perhaps too comfortable taking a risky product, and subsequently selling the heck out of it. The company he is primed to make millions for (named "GTI") turns him into the scapegoat for hinging their success on (what turns out to be) fabricated results. In the ensuing debacle, his reputation is shot, and he and Jessica are forced to move in with her folks--a retired cop named Ward (Fenton Lawless), and his wife, Vicky (Charmaine Reedy), both of whom are a bit too comfortable telling Joel how he should live his life. And yet Joel was ultimately responsible for getting himself (and his family) into this fix in the first place, because he was more interested in getting rich quick than producing something that actually worked. This becomes clear when Joel entertains Nicolaus's invitation to invest in his start-up just a bit too easily, even though he just got burned on this very same situation days before. I mean, he puts on a show of being cautious, but nevertheless goes behind his wife's back and sells Ward on the idea of investing his retirement savings into it anyway. Joel insists on seeing firsthand just what he's buying with his (in-laws') money, and gets his chance when he meets Nicolaus's partner and the inventor of "XVR" (Extreme Virtual Reality), Lester (Jay Klaitz). Lester is gruff and unlikable from go; and despite the warning signs, Joel allows himself to be strapped into the XVR "chair" and get dosed with some kind of drug that knocks him out. When he awakens, he is in a strange room--but even stranger is that he is a stranger. Joel feels a renewed sense of well-being after the experience, but it's the kind of false enlightenment that resembles the aftermath of faith healing or the euphoria that comes after snake oil salesmen have plied their wares. And that's just what Nicolaus and Lester are, only Joel is so eager to reclaim his prestige--and arguably the approval of his wife and in-laws--that he is willing to bend the rules to get it...which is just what got him into trouble in the first place.
Empathy, Inc. is a "lo-fi" indie film that exists in a kind of genre in and of itself. Consider the black-and-white cinematography prevalent in these films, as well as a story that could be described as "high concept". The look of Empathy, Inc. shares similarities with another low-budget vision of tension and class disparity: 13 Tzameti by Géla Babluani. When Nicolaus pitches his start-up to Joel in such a sly, incidental way, it reminds me of David Fincher's The Game or even Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. And the level of paranoia and incidental sci-fi that makes up the story draws comparisons to other early works by acclaimed filmmakers, like Darren Aronofsky's Pi, or Shane Carruth's Primer. Joel and his family are clearly affluent enough so that his loss of millions at GTI isn't really catastrophic. And Ward appears to have stockpiled enough mutual funds to justify putting a down payment on a house for his son-in-law (even if it is the one right across the street from them). Nicolaus claims that Empathy, Inc. is about letting other rich people gain a new perspective on life by experiencing it through the eyes of the less fortunate, like the homeless. Joel buys this line, and after his dip into the collective unconsciousness, he shows an increased amount of warmness to a homeless woman named Miss Miriam (Karen Lynn Gorney), who begs for change outside of the local coffee shop. Yet Joel's revelation is also just the kind of thing you'd expect from someone who was only superficially moved by an experience--like seeing Schindler's List and then planning a trip to the Holocaust Museum. The sad irony of XVR is that no one involved in it has any actual interest in exploring empathy. Rather, all parties concerned in the business of it see it as a get-rich-quick scheme (even Joel), and the clients evidently have no qualms about using it to indulge their baser impulses; otherwise, their identities wouldn't be so secret. Empathy, Inc. thus raises the question about whether people can be truly transformed by empathy, or if it's just a drug that fades until the next dose comes along.
Recommended for: Fans of an indie sci-fi story that wears its low budget aesthetic with pride. Empathy, Inc. has themes of class inequality beneath the surface and posits that opportunism is more seductive than empathy. Audiences that like to dig for these aspects will get more enjoyment from the film.
Empathy, Inc. is a "lo-fi" indie film that exists in a kind of genre in and of itself. Consider the black-and-white cinematography prevalent in these films, as well as a story that could be described as "high concept". The look of Empathy, Inc. shares similarities with another low-budget vision of tension and class disparity: 13 Tzameti by Géla Babluani. When Nicolaus pitches his start-up to Joel in such a sly, incidental way, it reminds me of David Fincher's The Game or even Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train. And the level of paranoia and incidental sci-fi that makes up the story draws comparisons to other early works by acclaimed filmmakers, like Darren Aronofsky's Pi, or Shane Carruth's Primer. Joel and his family are clearly affluent enough so that his loss of millions at GTI isn't really catastrophic. And Ward appears to have stockpiled enough mutual funds to justify putting a down payment on a house for his son-in-law (even if it is the one right across the street from them). Nicolaus claims that Empathy, Inc. is about letting other rich people gain a new perspective on life by experiencing it through the eyes of the less fortunate, like the homeless. Joel buys this line, and after his dip into the collective unconsciousness, he shows an increased amount of warmness to a homeless woman named Miss Miriam (Karen Lynn Gorney), who begs for change outside of the local coffee shop. Yet Joel's revelation is also just the kind of thing you'd expect from someone who was only superficially moved by an experience--like seeing Schindler's List and then planning a trip to the Holocaust Museum. The sad irony of XVR is that no one involved in it has any actual interest in exploring empathy. Rather, all parties concerned in the business of it see it as a get-rich-quick scheme (even Joel), and the clients evidently have no qualms about using it to indulge their baser impulses; otherwise, their identities wouldn't be so secret. Empathy, Inc. thus raises the question about whether people can be truly transformed by empathy, or if it's just a drug that fades until the next dose comes along.
Recommended for: Fans of an indie sci-fi story that wears its low budget aesthetic with pride. Empathy, Inc. has themes of class inequality beneath the surface and posits that opportunism is more seductive than empathy. Audiences that like to dig for these aspects will get more enjoyment from the film.