Mammoth (2009)

Directed by: Lukas Moodysson | 121 minutes | drama | Actors: Gael García Bernal, Michelle Williams, Sophie Nyweide, Marife Necesito, Maria Esmeralda del Carmen, Jan David G. Nicdao, Perry Dizon, Martin Delos Santos

Leo leaves when wife Ellen wakes up and Ellen comes home when daughter Jackie has to go to school; brought by a nanny, who abandoned her children in the Philippines for this.

Suppose you work very hard and therefore hardly have time for your partner and/or child. Is that good?

The answer can be guessed and the question is why Lukas Moodysson needs more than an hour to get this in the viewer’s mind. What does this director – after all a moralist with some experience witnessed by predecessors such as ‘Lilja 4-ever’ and ‘A Hole in my Heart’ – actually expect from his audience? Does he think it’s stupid and still needs to be brought up?

Could be, but towards the end the annoyance gives way to admiration – at least for the idea behind the project. ‘Mammoth’ turns out to be an ambitious film about the fate of humans – always busy with survival and therefore unable to live, and comes loose in the second half when computer whiz kid Leo gives up during contract negotiations in Thailand and behaves like the backpacker from his youth again. Then wonderful things happen, Moodysson shows us with a few poetic moments that do convey his message of love and connection.

Leo’s experiences in Thailand are sometimes endearing, as are little Jackie’s reflections on the origins of humanity. But that children have the wisdom is not immediately an original given – even a bit tacky. And here and there Moodysson seems to be copying directly from other ‘meaningful films’ such as ‘Babel’ – to which ‘Mammoth’ can be compared in structure and atmosphere – and ‘Lost in Translation’. For example, when we see the lonely Leo staring over Bangkok from his hotel room, we immediately think of Bob Harris in the latter film.

Remains about the implementation. In his first English-language film, Moodysson spent a lot of time getting the international setting in order and has succeeded in doing so; there is an adequate switch between the safe loft of the family in New York, the gory workplace of surgeon Ellen, the filthy Thai tourist centers and the Philippine slums. Because the characters remain schematic, it is difficult for Gael García Bernal and Michelle Williams to act and Leo and Ellen make a distant impression. ‘Mammoth’ must indeed rely on the message, but it should have been brought more personally to convince.