Mammoth
What the hell is that? Apart from the fact that it is an extinct mammal, it is also a new movie by the Swedish director Lukas Moodysson. Myself, #9 and another colleague of mine who watched the movie had an elaborate debate on the title of the movie. Let me say that we had some wild stabs but eventually settled on the idea that the name is absurd just for the sake of being absurd. I can buy that.
First up, let me say that I like the movie because it deals with an interesting topic that people don’t talk often about. It deals with gap created within families and the perils of people falling through them. The story has flaws, it is strongly opinionated and stereotypes all the characters. But that is alright because at the least, it provokes debate. There are a couple of other movies in similar vein that I enjoyed, simply because it allows for introspection and not because they are great films. One is Dirty Pretty Things that deals with the large cities and the immigrant population that keep them running and the other is Kinky Boots where issue of sexual discrimination non-acceptance is the central thesis.
That brings me to Mammoth. There is a consistent tone in the story line regarding mothers and children. The common thread is a strongly stereotyped working mothers. There are 5 women who are working away from their children so that they can give the kids a better life. Actually, one of them is not working, but expecting her daughter to work and support the family and another is never shown but we learn that she took out her rage on her son. The big irony being that the children are not really enjoying the life that the mothers are working for.
The commentary though stereotyped and biased, has some merit since it is indeed true that in the increasingly globalized and expensive world, raising kids is a difficult prospect and one has to make sacrifice of the family so that the family can have a better life. The focus is unfairly on the women but one can easily see that this sexist attitude needs to be relaxed and the theory should be seen in context.
The men in the movie are simply fillers added in to move the story along. One is a whale song listener, other is a bum leeching on his sisters earnings, another is a rich and extremely shallow negotiator. Ultimately, the only strong male character is a weak man. He is actually successful and rich but is portrayed as someone who is incapable of making decisions and st some point is seen talking rubbish about backpacker lifestyle and living in his imaginary world of giving it all up, sailing around the world, starting a charity and stuff like that. The sad part is that though the thoughts are noble, he is just wavering through them. We also see that the successful doctor is emotionally very dependent on this bumbling fool which just drives my overt sexism theory deeper.
For all its demerits, I still enjoyed the movie, it had its lighter moments when the Thai girls were discussing, ahem, people of the world. I guess the movie ultimately is not great but well worth watching. Not a bad bet for this film festival.
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