Mammoth

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.

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.

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.

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")

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.