MAMMOTH
Written & Directed by Lukas Moodysson
Produced by Lars Jonsson
Released by IFC Films
Sweden/Denmark/Germany. 126 min Not rated
With Gael García Bernal, Michelle Williams, Sophie Nyweide, Marife Necesito & Run Srinikornchot
 

Director Lukas Moodysson cues our emotional response in the first menacing moments of his taut new film, Mammoth. The opening scene reveals a young couple exuberantly playing with their eight-year-old daughter in a bright Soho loft, but the dramatic music and tense camerawork seem out of step with the merriment.

The husband, Leo (Gael García Bernal), is the creator of a wildly successful social network for gamers, and has a childlike, effervescent quality. As he packs for a business trip to Thailand and showers his daughter Sophie with kisses, Leo’s love for life and family comes through in a constant, restless enthusiasm. His wife, Ellen (Michelle Williams), lives in a very different world. As a night surgeon in the ER, her days are marked by trauma at work, insomnia at home, and a burgeoning guilt over not spending enough time with her daughter. Meanwhile, Sophie is growing attached to her Filipino nanny Gloria, whose character introduces another, far less successful story line.

While Gloria pours her maternal energy into her relationship with Sophie, she longs for the family she supports back in the Philippines. The toll of the separation is heaviest on her two young sons. Their impoverished circumstances are used as a heavy-handed symbol of global economic inequality. The contrast between their lot and Sophie’s nurtured existence is too simple of a juxtaposition for this otherwise high caliber film. Moodysson, acclaimed for his heartbreaking exploration of child prostitution in Lilja 4-ever, again latches on to huge social themes, touching on prostitution but focusing on our relationship with children in general.

In Thailand, Leo is bombarded with naughty temptations, one of which is Cookie, a feisty teenage prostitute. Though her character is included as a commentary on the rampant sex trade, the social theme plays second fiddle to her and Leo’s sparkling interaction. Bernal, who plays an exceptionally vivacious character, lights up the screen as he tries to understand Cookie’s broken English and ward off her advances. He finds it easy to resist cheating on his wife, but if he would indulge in an indiscretion, it comes not from frustration or ennui but out of curiosity and a zest for living.

Leo’s spirit and Bernal’s overwhelming talent carry the film, with the help from a beautiful soundtrack featuring Cat Power. Williams slightly overacts her character’s darker, emotional experience, but she still gives a powerful performance. Unfortunately, the clichéd Philippine subplot and overwrought social commentary sometimes distracts, but like the bass booming in the background of a great rock song—jarring on its own—it fittingly enriches the film. Yana Litovsky
November 20, 2009