Mammoth (2009) User Reviews

Dark light at the end of the tunnel.

[tigerfish50 · 8/10 · 29 December 2010]

Like Innaritu's "Babel", Lukas Moodysson's "Mammoth" focuses on groups of people who share connections with each other, as well as the dilemma of family members parted from their loved ones by the need to earn a living in the global economy. At the film's opening Leo is a computer game whiz, living the American dream with his wife Ellen and a delightful 7 Y-O daughter in a vast apartment high above the streets of Manhattan. Their child's nanny Gloria resides with them, but this immigrant worker's calm exterior conceals growing agitation at being separated from two young sons, who live with their grandmother back in the Philippines.

The idealistic, unworldly Leo must travel to Thailand for the signing of a business deal. As he sets off on his trip Ellen works a punishing schedule as an E. R. surgeon, fretting that she's losing her daughter's affection to Gloria, and compensating for this anxiety by getting emotionally entangled in the case of a child who has been brutally stabbed by his mother. After arriving at his Bangkok luxury hotel, Leo pines for his family, exchanging disjointed voice-mails with Ellen while he waits for the lawyers to conclude their negotiations. Eventually he escapes the city for a remote beach resort, where he befriends a young prostitute after rejecting her professional advances.

The film takes its time building up the pressure, but it's no great hardship watching such a talented cast heating up the stew until the pot boils over. When it does, the story avoids sentimentality, and Moodyson tosses his characters into an emotional whirlpool. The story makes it clear the struggles of the poor will always be remorseless - but also suggests future upheavals might await Leo and Ellen.

the long black wait

[mathias-43 · 8/10 · 19 January 2009]

Now that Moodysson is back from the grave (oh, but what a fine grave it was) there is ridiciously high hopes for this first international production. It usually takes about five to fifteen minutes before I get tangled up in his movies, this time though it toke almost half an hour. Mammoth is of course more complex, with much more going on at the same time in different parts of the world, than his other works. Or not more complex, maybe just wider. Nevermind; it's a fine piece of cinema, great storytelling and speaks grimly to us about the world we're raping, the time we're wasting and the people suffering becaurse of our western lifestyles. Mostly it's about the children who are crushed in the middle of our lost struggle to make a life, buy more stuff or just to survive. Does that make sense? The movie does, in a sad way.

Captivating critique of the global condition

[mzojala · 8/10 · 25 April 2009]

Mammoth is an ambitious, highly contemplative take on the implications of global capitalism for individuals, families and communities. Moodysson illustrates a world in which market economy as the Western way of life both encourages and obliges human action that, irrespective of one's intentions, reproduces unequal social relations and reinforces existing power structures.

One could criticize Moodysson of presenting only conservative, private solutions for the social problems caused by globalization. The protagonists do not try to face their social circumstance head on or to find political ways for addressing their situation. In stead of seeking social change through collective action, family becomes of central importance. Only some vague escapist dreams are left for the disillusioned workers at both ends of the global working class.

Despite the film's fatalism, Moodysson succeeds beautifully in constructing a convincing and authentic interpretation of the 21st century social reality of global interconnectedness. The tragedy of highly educated Western professionals that Mammoth portrays lies in the fact that they are conscious of the disastrous social and ecological consequences of their actions, yet find themselves completely unable to transform the social condition.

dramatically flawed but poetic look at parent/child relationships

[Buddy-51 · 7/10 · 10 December 2010]

Written and directed by Lukas Moodysson, "Mammoth" is a melancholic indie feature showing how both those who have money and those who don't can be equally unhappy. On a deeper level, it's also about how parents – mainly out of necessity but sometimes out of cruelty - often fail to provide their children with the care and nurturing they need to feel protected and loved.

Leo (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Ellen (Michelle Williams) are a young married couple with a seven-year-old daughter (Sophie Nyweide) who live in a fancy loft in Soho. Though a self-described "hippie" in his younger days, Leo has recently made it to the "big time" by turning his nerdish obsession with internet video games into a multimillion dollar enterprise. But Leo can't quite adjust to being a part of the privileged classes, and he yearns for a simpler life focused on his family, something that seems to be becoming ever more difficult to achieve with his busy schedule. Ellen works nights as an emergency room surgeon, which prevents her from spending the kind of quality time she would like with her daughter, Jackie, who, in turn, is becoming ever more attached to Gloria (Marife Necesito), her Filipina nanny. Gloria, meanwhile, is heartbroken at the fact that she's had to leave her two little boys back in the Philippines to basically fend for themselves, while she earns enough money to build the house they will all one day live in.

Leo and Ellen are united in their desire to do good in the world – Ellen, by patching up broken bodies and shattered lives, and Leo, by spreading his new-found wealth around to those in need. In a way, they're finding their own means of helping to bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots in this world. But at what cost to their family unit? The movie draws a distinct contrast between life in Manhattan and life in the Philippines, where Gloria's children live with the everlasting threat of poverty hanging over their heads, and Thailand, where Leo goes on a business trip and where his attraction to a beautiful native girl may ultimately prove too powerful to resist.

Though at times it may seem meandering and insufficiently developed in terms of its storytelling, "Mammoth" finds its own strength in concentrating on those little moments of truth that form the essence of real life. And even though there is a surfeit of musical-montage sequences running throughout the film, it is partly counteracted by a subtle, spare and haunting musical score that nicely accentuates the lyrical nature of the piece. The last half hour, in particular, becomes a poetic and powerful account of people learning to prioritize their own lives in such a way as to be of the greatest value to both themselves and those around them.

Moodysson goes American

[stensson · 7/10 · 31 January 2009]

You expected him to compromise. You demanded of him not to. This goes in between.

Mammoth tells the story of the wealthy New York couple who keeps a nanny from the Phillipines for their daughter. The nanny's sons are on the other side of the world. There are certainly no equal living conditions here and the film attacks globalization.

But it does so in a rather quiet way. Moodysson has said that he's too old to judge people anymore. And that's a pity, because it makes this film rather toothless. You can't have your criticism taken seriously if everybody more or less are victims.

The acting is all right here, but still this is a very Americanized movie. Moodysson has had resources, OK, but he has lacked the artistic possibilities, working within this system.

About young parents in modern age

[nielsjanss · 10/10 · 24 August 2009]

After reading the reviews here I wanted to put in my own 2 cents. This movie is basically about being a parent in a modern age. There are three story lines, one about a nurse in NYC, one about her husband, a computer geek with lots of money, and one about about their nanny.

The one thing the woman, the man, and the nanny all have in common are the sacrifices they make for their kids. The man and woman both have very successful jobs, and the nanny from the Philippines works in the US to earn money for her kids back home. However, the sacrifices they make are so extreme that each person becomes detached from the very reason why they made these sacrifices in the first place: Their children.

The film presents us with a critical portrayal of this lifestyle, and as such in the end this is a tragedy.

This is an excellent film, highly recommended, especially for those of us who must balance work and family life on a daily basis.

Mothers and Children

[claudio_carvalho · 6/10 · 20 December 2011]

In New York, the immature family man Leo Vidales (Gael García Bernal) is a successful businessman, owner of the Underlandish, a successful website of digital games and married with Dr. Ellen Vidales (Michelle Williams), a dedicated surgeon of the emergency room of a hospital. They have a daughter, Jackie (Sophie Nyweide), who is an intelligent girl that is raised by her nanny, the Filipino Gloria (Marife Necesito) that spends more time with her than Ellen. Gloria has two sons in Philippine that miss her.

When Leo need to travel to Singapore with his partner Bob (Tom McCarthy) to sign a millionaire contract with investors, Ellen operates a boy stabbed in the stomach by his own mother and she feels connected to the boy and rethinks her relationship with Jackie. Meanwhile Leo is bored waiting for the negotiation of Bob with the investors and he decides to travel to Bangkok and lodges in a rustic cottage on the seashore.

Leo meets the young prostitute and mother Cookie (Run Srinikornchot) and he has one night stand with her. Meanwhile, Gloria's ten year-old boy Salvador (Jan David G. Nicdao) misses her mother and decides to find a job. His innocence leads him to a tragedy.

"Mammoth" is a melodramatic film about motherhood – there are four parallel situations of mother and children – Ellen and Jackie; Gloria and her sons; the boy Anthony and his mother that has stabbed him; and Cookie and her baby.

I had a great expectation with this film, but unfortunately the plot does not work well and is pointless, going to nowhere. There is the contrast between people and specially children from the First and Third Worlds, but nothing new. The narrative is cold and not engaging.

Gael Garcia Bernal is miscast and his immature character has nothing to do with his mature wife. Sophie Nyweide steals the film with her top- notch performance. There are so many tragedies along the story that in the end I was expecting that Leo had contracted AIDS with Cookie and would transmit the disease to his wife Ellen. The title "Mammoth" refers to the expensive pen that Bob gave to Leo, but I did not understand the intention of the author with this title. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Corações em Conflito" ("Hearts in Conflict")

Layered, important, well acted, overall powerful stuff

[secondtake · 8/10 · 12 December 2012]

Mammoth (2009)

The symbolism of the title will escape most people (it did me), but it literally shows up in an expensive pen with mammoth tusk inlays. This pen crosses a border of wealth and culture that the characters of the movie can't ever cross. And yet the lives of all the many different narratives interwoven here are perfectly parallel.

But we know that parallel lines by definition never meet, even if they seem to in the distance down the tracks.

The three or four narrative threads are relatively independent even if they relate completely in theme (and in some small direct connecting way) to each other. It's a little like "Babel" in that the stories are literally worlds apart. Central is the New York City couple with the two main stars, computer games analyst (Gael Garcia Bernal) and his emergency room surgeon wife (Michelle Williams). They have a child who is mostly taken care of by a live-in nanny, a Filipino woman with children of her own left behind in her home country.

The third locale is Thailand because Bernal goes there on a business trip, and while he's there he has a kind of epiphany about the meaning of life. That's where the pen takes on a brief life of its own. The epiphany, like many revelations for all of us, is short-lived, too, and I think that's part of the idea. We all strive, we all have good intentions, but really nothing quite adds up.

What figures most in all of the stories are the children--not least the cute and precocious New York City girl. The children of the nanny and the child of a Thai prostitute who has a slightly caricatured but important role also figure in. If the parents are doing what they can for their children, they are also even more doing what they can for themselves. And sometimes it seems like survival, but of course, survival how, at what economic level? Would it be better in fact to not prostitute yourself (as a nanny, for example) simply to get ahead? Or is this the only way to give your children something you don't get for yourselves.

All of this is in the movie. It's intense, it wants to say a lot. And in some way it does. There is some sense that it doesn't always quite click, as if there are things the director could have pushed--or pulled--for greater effect. This isn't something to really judge from the outside, but it's not a masterpiece, which requires some other kind of aesthetic elevation. But it's really good, very good, a movie to see. See it.

Long, slow, and lacking a skeleton

[birck · 6/10 · 20 August 2010]

I notice that many of the positive reviews for this film are from Scandinavia. I'm not, and I ran into some real holes in the story. The subject of the film is parents and children, and what happens when the two are separated by necessity. The film opens in New York, where Leo, the main character, has become fabulously wealthy, and loves his kid, but must fly off to Bangkok to seal a deal that will make him even wealthier. His story is the skeleton of the movie,but it's also the weakest and least convincing. Two other stories (or four) complete the film, showing us family separations-by-necessity that are more convincing. I for one found the story of the Filipino nanny much more watchable and believable. The Philippines produces too many intelligent, well-educated people for its economy to support, so roughly 15% of the adult workforce are forced to leave the country to work overseas; Gloria, the nanny, is one of them, and she has to leave her children in Olangapo while she sends money back from New York. I knew about that situation going in, but the film does a nice job of dramatizing it. meanwhile, the main story, starring Gael Bernal as the wealthy-but-tortured New Yorker, just doesn't work, partly because it's either poorly-written or not written at all. Bernal is a good actor, but here he sounds as if he's been asked to improvise his own dialogue, and it sounds just like improvised movie dialogue from other badly-improvised movies: boring, flat, and very, very, very repetitious. Improvisation can be done right, and when it is, it works beautifully, as in Happy-Go-Lucky and The Class, but not here. Whether it's improvised or not, Leo's part of the film is one long boring cliché. There are some other little glitches in the film that strain credulity, but overall I'll ignore the Leo section and give it a 6 out of 10.

Gloablisation clichéd

[Gecq · 4/10 · 16 February 2009]

Mammoth tells the story of a rich New Yorker couple and their daughter and their nanny and her family. While the one side - she is a doctor and he is some kind of creative director at a tremendously successful gaming website - has more money to spend than is good for them, the other side - their Philippine nanny - is working in New York to earn the money for her kids at home. The movie seems to enjoy the contrast between rich and poor in a grotesque manner yet doesn't manage to achieve anything profound. The result is cliché and commonplace up to total boredom or a hidden sarcasm I don't understand. After the previous works of Moodysson, "Fucking Åmål", "Tilsamman" and "Lilya 4Ever" this disappointment leaves me absolutely puzzled.

Moodysson remains intact in English, too

[sippan · 8/10 · 23 January 2009]

After seeing The Wrestler, by my once favourite director Darren Aronofsky, and finding that he had lost all of his personality as a director on his voyage toward mainstream cinema, I had been worried that my other favourite director Lukas Moodysson would suffer the same fate in his attempt to make an American, Swedish film.

But I can happily report that he didn't.

There is no director, alive or dead, whose films make you feel more emotionally immersed than Moodysson. Nobody's characters you care more about. This holds true even in this latest film, which sneers cynically at society at the same time as it glances warmly at the individuals society consists of, while in the meantime all of its characters are so busy caring for people that they neglect to care for the ones closest to them.

But while the individuals eventually find their way back, society carries on unstoppable.

One significant and courageous point is the way it tears down the adorable Internet geek image.

[choden · 7/10 · 31 January 2012]

There are many aspects that make this film special starting from the its use of clichés and the extent it destroys the popular images of this millennium. One significant and courageous point is the way it tears down the adorable Internet geek image. Recently, Hollywood has produced a great number of youngsters, a generation of movie goers who want to become a Mark Zuckerberg or Steve Jobs one day. Nonetheless, the other side of the coin is not that bright or desirable. Mammoth introduces Leo Vidales, the millionaire geek with all his immaturity and weakness, with his ultra shallow personality and his conscience per diem. Globalization rapes the world, devastates the life of the nanny, and enables a heartless brat like Vidales a millionaire live his life with a descent surgeon wife and a pretty kid. Actually, he is a kind of rapist when he talks about doing charity, when he talks about his fantasies of going to India or Africa with Cookie, when he wants to act like a free - souled hippie who he could never be. He rapes other people's dreams and innocent public images. However, after 2 hours we see him at his Manhattan home, safe and sound, enjoying the peace he himself never deserved.

Mammoth of Lukas Moodysson runs for the cold truth. Except one detail, Salvador would have known. He would have known what could happen to kids when they talked to white foreigners out there. Every Filipino kid know without their grandmas telling. They watch the news on TV, they read the papers, and yes they have friends with sad and scary stories. Moodysson skipped this fact. Maybe despite all his good efforts, he is still too white for the realities of East Asia.

Budget wasted. I miss the real Moodysson

[XeniaGuberman · 3/10 · 26 May 2010]

I assume it was a great break for the director - a big budget movie with real pan-American stars. What a disappointment! I can completely relate to his plight for abandoned and exploited children, but as an art form - pardonne moi! It was fresh, groundbreaking and believable in "Lilya Forever" showing a Russian kid abandoned by her government and parents, and exploited in Estonia and then in Scandinavia. Here - a much weaker artistically, emotionally, and logically, attempt to develop the theme into a more global tell-all tale. Too bad, it paints a couple of hard-working (and yes, sorry to mention this, well-off) new-yorkers as complete morons, incapable not only of any rational move, but also of any true or at least understandable emotion. If Michelle Williams character is more or less believable, assuming she is severely overworked and terribly depressed, the lead "first lover" is just a walking caricature. There is literally nothing good to be said about this lead character played by Bernal. If people this inconsistent could reach adulthood in reality, they would never achieve any success in life, unlike in the movie. There are also other characters that are so cliché that one could just wonder if the screenwriter/director exercised any self-editing at all after compounding these two "heroines": a "good whore" and a "wise Philippina woman". The conclusion - even as a satire, it does not fly. Nobody needs a lesson on class struggle in such a naive and distorted form. Equaling being poor with "wholesome goodness" is even more superficial. One good thing though - the movie stimulates some thoughts of "downshifting". That is, why work hard, if harder you work - the less happy you apparently are, even if you do achieve your "goal" of living cushy life. A sort of stab at the American Dream. I guess many people could relate to that.

a picture

[Vincentiu · 29 August 2012]

like many others. a trip . like a lot of movies. a new Babel. but in specific way. a poem. about maternity, search of sense and broken bridges of soul. nothing more. story of three mothers in different places of world. and same problems, answers and tragedies. like game of mirrors. like hided arena.a young man in Thailand. his questions, quests and discoveries. and a strange pen. nothing else. a puzzle and definition of globalization fruits. or only reflection of same need of sense who makes heart of every society. who makes hours, months, years, decades of each man and woman.the axis of that heart is always the child. a child. who may be promise for better life. who must be legitimation of present sacrifice. who gives force in every difficult moment. a prey, a pray, a promise and perfect victim.so, the virtue of film is game of nuances. delicate. subtle. cruel. and wise. far from a moral lesson. but, with a very good cast, a letter to public.

Moodysson lost in translation?

[rlaine · 7/10 · 25 March 2010]

I was looking forward to seeing Mammoth because Moodysson seems to be one of the most interesting directors at the moment. I've yet to see Container and will probably pass Hole in My Heart for good, but all the other movies have deeply moved me.

While Moodyssons other movies feel genuine and sincere, Mammoth felt a bit forced and clichéd. It was strangely detached from all characters and during the movie I was thinking if this is a conscious choice or not, as in his other movies you really feel like you are there and feel the characters every emotion. With Mammoth, I was left more as an observer.

Moodysson also seems to be a bit out of his character with the huge global setting. Altho the set, locations and cinematography are top notch, especially the New York scenario and the family just don't seem believable. I had really hard time connecting to anything or anyone.

I have to admit I've always thought both Williams and especially Bernal keep a bit of a distance from their characters. Williams delivers once in a while, but Bernal just feels like his not really acting a character, but rather just being himself. Or maybe he just acts the same role in all the movies I've seen from him.

There is a bit of an Oscar vibe here too like there was with Babel and Crash, and it feels intentional. Everythings a bit too underlined and spoon fed. Many events are easily foreseen before they happen, and you're left with very few surprises. Most of the events go as awry as they can, and it gets a bit heavy with more then two hours of it.

Not a bad movie, but too preachy and pretentious.

watchable

[surfisfun · 6/10 · 6 September 2021]

I tought Gael was misscast .

Movie script so so.

Still, it can be captivating .

Cheers.

Like a breath of fresh air

[lefaikone · 8/10 · 28 April 2009]

There was a big speculation of Moodysson being a total sell-out, doing a major picture in America, but that obviously wasn't the case. It isn't Moodysson quite like you've seen before, but definitely not in a bad way. He innovated his style into new directions, without compromising his vision.

Gael García Bernal has proved himself to be one of the greatest actors of this generation in Iñárritu's pictures, and Mammoth comes as no exception. In fact I feel a little Iñárrituish vibe in the movie; the whole theme is pretty similar with Babel.

Somebody commented earlier here, that Moodysson was just "teethless" with his society critic in Mammoth, but I really have to disagree. I wouldn't even use the word "critic" in Mammoth's case - I don't see Moodysson as a preacher, but as an objective lens, which allows us to see the world differently. It's art people, not politics; pointing fingers isn't the point.

Finding Home

[gradyharp · 10/10 · 26 December 2009]

MAMMOTH is a sensitively written and directed film by Lukas Moodysson that adroitly traces three stories that all intertwine within the confines of one family. It touches on many aspects of human relationships but the one driving force behind each of the several stories that are woven in this film is the importance of family. It is a profoundly moving film beautifully brought to life by a fine cast of actors.

Leo Vidales (Gael García Bernal in yet another role that proves he is one of the finest actors on the screen today, despite his young age) is a highly successful designer of video games, married to Ellen (Michelle Williams), a committed Physician and Surgeon, and parent to a vibrant little girl Jackie (Sophie Nyweide) who is devoted to her Filipino nanny Gloria (Marife Necesito) who is living with the Vidales to make money to send home to her treasured young sons Manuel (Martin Delos Santos) and Salvador (Jan David G. Nicdao) living in the Philippines with their grandmother (Maria Esmeralda del Carmen). Leo's family unit is warm and secure (the only minor crack in the veneer is young Jackie's preference for spending time with the more available Gloria than with Ellen due to Ellen's long hours in the hospital).

Leo is called to Thailand on a business trip to sell his ideas to Thai entrepreneurs and while there his business partner (Thomas McCarthy) suggests that he partake of the feminine charms readily available in this country. Leo is faithful and declines advances from call girls but eventually gives in to a beautiful young Cookie (Natthamonkarn Srinikornchot) only to be driven by remorse to make a quick sell of his product to return to his family. Meanwhile at home Ellen is devastated by the death of one of her young patients and in her distress she must allow Gloria to return to the Philippines whose one son has been severely beaten in his attempt to gain more money for his family so that his mother needn't work in the USA. How the results of all these traumas resolve forms the touching ending of this moving story.

While each of the actors mentioned is superb, Gael García Bernal shines in a very subtle role as does Michelle Williams who manages to make Ellen credible without becoming saccharine. Yes, if the story sounds a bit like another film in the style of Alejandro González Iñárritu ('Babel') or Paul Haggis ('Crash'), then that is a fine comparison as this film is in many ways a more intimate version of that kind of storytelling. Highly recommended.

Grady Harp

Tedious pretentiousness

[julianj-1 · 2/10 · 6 November 2010]

As an avid cinephile I am reluctant to submit a rollickingly bad review, but I find it necessary to counterbalance the favourable ones.

This is a tedious, almost plot less, farrago of rich Westerners patronising impoverished third-worlders. I was waiting in excruciating boredom for something to happen. It doesn't.

The cinematography is nothing to write home about, score is poor and the acting OK. The script is dire - mixed metaphors about a Mammoth (v expensive) pen and also astronomy. Probably the idea for the film comes from the pen, and it's too thin a peg to hang an entire movie on. I would say this was, for me, one of the top five most boring films I have seen in my life.

Emotional, well assembled and captivating drama

[medeni101 · 9/10 · 10 May 2013]

Not really much to say without spoiling it...this drama will leave very strong imprint on your hart and soul. It portrays human struggle and search for the meaning of everything. Suffering and pain from separation - both, long and short term, from people we love and need.

I watched this movie three times over 72 hours, and every time I saw it, I felt like I was watching it for the first time. Story line is well crafted and acting is just superb by all. I could not help but think of a "butterfly effect" in relation to actions of all characters and, even some seemingly small and irrelevant move, will resonate across continents and impact characters' lives. Also, along with a pizza or popcorn, get a box of Kleenex...trust me you will need it.

I watched this one so that you won't have to

[hughman55 · 1/10 · 14 March 2011]

This movie attempts to comment on the sorry state of parenting today. Unfortunately the characters are written and delivered in a ridiculously unbelievable way. I didn't buy one minute of it. The story is about how parents abandon their own children for ostensibly good reasons, but the results are always bad. There's a husband and wife who are high powered professionals. They have delegated their parenting to a Phillipino nanny. The nanny has abandoned her children to come to the U.S. so that she can send money back to the Filipines to pay for a cement house she's having built. This IS a story worth telling. Unfortunately these characters are presented in a TOTALLY unbelievable way. Mostly this flaw manifests itself through Michelle Williams and the Spanish guy from "E Tu Mama Tambien" who plays her husband. I don't think they give "bad" performances. I think they gave the wrong performances, for this story, and this film. And that, I will lay at the feet of the director, whoever he or she is. I could care less to look it up right now.

It takes a lot to take the time to write a bad review for a bad movie after you've just wasted 2 hours of your life that you'll never get back. But if one person reads this two minute review and decides not to watch this movie, I'll consider my time well spent. The last thing I'll say is that this film could have been salvaged with a complete re-write from the scene at the dump through to the ending. They wouldn't have had to change the ending. Just everything in between those two points. Instead it just nose dived from there to the last frame. Don't waste your time.

The root of all evil

[madworld-63503 · 9/10 · 10 November 2021]

The movie is less about an affair, and more about the completely screwed up socioeconomic systems of our world. Money is indeed the root of all evil, and this is a very well-made film, wity interweaving stories, depicting the havoc that chasing money wreaks on people, families, and entire societies.

Mammoth

[random_avenger · 8/10 · 24 September 2010]

After the crass but bold anti-pornography pamphlet A Hole in My Heart, Swedish director Lukas Moodysson continued his career with the black and white "silent movie with sound" Container, which sounds interesting although I haven't seen it yet. His latest film Mammoth is a return to narrative story lines and more conventional techniques, and a pretty good portrayal of modern loneliness and the nature of family relationships.

The plot deals with the Vidaleses, a wealthy family of three living in New York City. Leo (Gael García Bernal), the father of the family and a creator of a successful gaming website, has to fly to Thailand to sign a contract, while his wife Ellen (Michelle Williams) and their daughter Jackie (Sophie Nyweide) stay at home. Ellen is an emergency surgeon often working long hours, leaving Jackie to spend a lot of time with the family's Filipino nanny Gloria (Marife Necesito) who she has grown very close to. Subsequently all of the characters experience different kinds of loneliness in the absence of their loved ones and have to find ways to cope with their feelings over the course of the film.

The title of the film refers to an expensive pen made from mammoth ivory that Leo receives from his business partner as a gift. Later on the pen comes to symbolize the flaunting lifestyle Leo wants to distance himself from, and economic inequality in general is one of the themes examined in the form of the Gloria character: she is working hard in America to provide decent life for her children in the Philippines, even if the separation from them is tearing her apart. Leo and Ellen may be oblivious to her feelings, but they are not free of worries either, even if the nature of their anxiety is vaguer and often seen as less understandable by the common public. The characters' inner similarities are also exemplified by the adoption of a "surrogate child" for every character: Gloria is affectionate towards Jackie, while Ellen becomes particularly caring about one of her young patients in the hospital and Leo wants to help out a Thai prostitute named Cookie (Natthamonkarn Srinikornchot).

Moodysson is clearly criticizing the effects of globalization on poor families' means of making money and Mammoth is not devoid rather emotional scenes, but luckily the director favours a much subtler way of presenting his message than in, say, his prostitution-themed depressor Lilya 4-Ever (2002). A lot of the time the characters' states of mind are brought forward by haunting pop songs or shots of people looking out of windows by themselves, a style not unlike that of Sofia Coppola's masterful Lost in Translation (2003). Using or referencing many modern communication technologies like cell phones, Skype or MySpace further emphasizes the increasing relevance of the sense of alienation in life, an important theme that has been touched by numerous films and works of fiction.

Even though the main idea behind the film doesn't provide major surprises, and neither does the story or the ending, the film is well made and enjoyable to watch as a functional sum of its parts. The nice Thai scenery and New York's urban landscapes look great and all the actors succeed in their parts, especially García Bernal as the pseudo-youthful Leo and the always good Michelle Williams as the stressed Ellen, but Marife Necesito also get through her diverse role without giving reasons to complain. Child actress Sophie Nyweide delivers a delightfully seamless performance as too. Since the music and cinematography have been skilfully created as well, Mammoth can safely be called one of the better films of recent years and recommended also to wider audiences who may not have appreciated Moodysson's previous two films as much.

How to make a boring film out of a good idea

[OJT · 3/10 · 22 September 2013]

I've seen thousands of movies (literary!), and I have no troubles with watching movies which are different. What troubles me are boring movies. A film can be about everything without being boring. Even everyday life and work. But a film about everyday life needs a plot or a point to it. I guess this film is about world wide connections, and about the world and making money to fulfill people's dreams. In a sick world. And it's A film with lots of use of mobile phones. More or less pointless. Maybe there's a connection I don't get here. I'm used to look out for details in film, proving to be important pieces of the film puzzle later on in the movie. Here there's much pointless things happening that it ruins the experience. The important thing here appends in the last half hour, and they are made almost unimportant. I find that almost provoking to both the viewer and to the actors doing their best in this.

Still, I have to say I'm not that sure about the theme. Did I understand it? Because I feel more and more empty while watching this. The opposite of what I expected, and it annoys me. And it is getting worse and worse. The script might be confusing, or just uninteresting. I didn't want to watch a film witch could have been my own working day or holiday. I really don't buy that these people are so bored.

This is absolutely a great idea, but it's not well made. The cutting rhythm is so annoying, that it seems unprofessional. The tedious focusing of the camera is a Moodyson trade marque, and it functions well in a couple of his movies, but here it's not that suitable.

I've enjoyed some of Moodysons earlier films, but I found this very unfulfilled. Some of his work has been both good and important. But this is far off. The cutting is annoying, and so is the actors, and the music. Not a good way to start, but the worst is that the film music promises something exciting, which really never happens. The aim characters are living quite interesting lives, but we almost are bored with they're every day life.

Mammoth is a film which should be buried in the ice like the Mammoths. Hope Moodysons gets well soon!

A emotional drama with a message

[glennmustermann · 9/10 · 15 July 2023]

The message of the movie seems to be to be more critical on our daily consumption and about the way globalism works. But not only that, the movie shows us the uncut version of our own race's social interactions. That we are not behaving like we pretend to be (a nice and good person). That there are countries like the Phillipines were boys and girls have to work inside the garbage to eat dirt or engage with tourists in bed to survive. While Jackie (Ellens daughter) lives in something close to paradise, the two sons of Gloria lives in a poor environment in the Phillipines. But thanks to Glorias work in the USA, the sons (i believe age 6 and 9) don't need to do mentioned things. The downside is that she has to be in the USA far away from her children. Leo and Ellen live together with their daughter but they seem at times to be as disconnected from her as Gloria from her children due to their time hungry jobs.

The movie seems to be at times open to dramatize things which in a way goes a bit into fantasy in my opinion (especially towards the end). But if you can let this unconventional (or non linear) drama movie happen as it is (sit back and just watch and feel), then this will not bother you.

About the main characters (little info about them):

Leo: Business man, a real one but also a nerd (he owns a major game site), discovers Indonesia on a business trip. Not always the empathic nice guy he seems to be. On the outside the most empathic business man you could find.

Ellen: Empathic all the way through. Always trying to care about everything. She works as a doctor and is almost in a burnout like situation because of her dual duty.

Gloria: The best nanny out there. Invests much time with Jackie

Jackie: Much like her mother. (But with more freetime ;) Has a major bound with Gloria.

Salvador (the elder son of Gloria): A depressed boy who wants to be with his mother, he would do many things for that to happen.

Cookie: More than just a prostitutiate.