I've held off watching the film for a long time... I knew I'd need to be ...what...in the right frame of mind to appreciate it? ...psychologically or emotionally prepared enough?....I don't know...hmm The Congress (2013) I had no idea what to expect....and so had no preconceptions... it definitely surprised me Well done. Like few... if any films ...I've seen. What genre even to put it in... Redemptive? Love Story? Horror? Sci-fi? Utopian? Dystopian? Just-around-the corner-technology film? called "Speculative Fiction" rather than Sci-fi....since it is closer to what could happen than Sci-fi. Not saying what is in the film could happen...just that the overall prevading theme is our species problems and the answers we choose to solve them....for good and bad. Real... live...flesh and blood actors and sets.... and animation... Think of ..."Who framed roger rabbit", "Cool World", "Jacob's Ladder" and "Repo Men"...just to name a few...smooshed together into one movie and then take some LSD to watch it.... alot of LSD... and those films don't compare. The 1st half of the film creeps toward what we can do and are doing...for good and bad... technologically... and the most definite inescapable fact there is no stopping it.. (as a consequence such film can't be called "A Cautionary Tale"..what use the caution ..eh? ......seems to be more and more prevalent in film...the aspect of fate dominating and free-will and choice departing...though this film has a strange mix, balance and juxtaposition with the undercurrent theme...similar in a way to that new movie "The Machine"...also well done.....hmm) The most horrifying thing about the film ...I was surprised to realize ...was the ability to offer humanity the ultimate prize of "Free Choice" to do..or be....or experience whatever...total nirvana...paradise...whatever desired. I think that as humans the knowledge of the passage of time..and understanding our environs and seeing for good and bad right and wrong...is important...it makes us human...rather than animal..or something else completely different...others may view this film differently... I figure myself to be a moderately creative and imaginative person...humbly said...(the actual truth of the matter being rather ...that my mind is quite quite active)...but this runs riot... I never dreamt it to be a possible horror. The 2nd half of the film definitely is the repercussion. I won't even try to explain what it is specifically about.... How it made me feel in so many different ways... One of those films I know I'll be watching it over and over. It'll stay in my film vault.