“Baba used to say that being a kid was like being drunk: everyone remembers what you did except you,” recalls the contemplative Grace who is voiced by Sarah Snook of Succession in Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, his new stop motion feature. However, Grace gondi picture to herself for surfers as a report of how among other things a young girl locked herself in a protective shell yet led a life overflowing with wonder and imagination.
Grab a tissue. You may need one here. Mind you, Memoir of a Snail does not set out to make you cry, but chances are you just might. Co-directed by Snook, the film features voice talents of Eric Bana, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jacki Weaver, Nick Cave and Luke Elliot and it is truly an astounding achievement. Eight years in the making, it so widely deals with issues of loneliness, depression, hope, triumph and curiosity. In that sense, it is a rare adult stop-motion film, as such themes are more common in Japanese anime.
Back in 2004, Elliot earned himself an Academy Award for Harvie Krumpet, which was described earlier as a success. The film is in essence the part of the filmmaker self-fashioned ‘Trilogy of Trilogies,’ where he sought to create three short shorts, then three long shorts then finally, three full movies. In this case, the film depicts the main character as a typical loner who draws his inspiration from figures like Søren Kierkegaard and Sylvia Plath and has to retain some optimism in this chaotic world. Elliot has so much to talk about through his film’s plot, it’s quite beautiful and narratively quite powerful.
The story offers us an acceptably if not convincingly identifiable protagonist in Grace Pudel (which is phonetically very similar to puddle). She is a reclusive and often brooding outcast who has a strange hobby of collecting tiny decorative snails and derives pleasure in reading a book especially if it requires introspection and critical thinking. It is revealed through a flashback that Grace was only a little girl when she was parted with her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) and as a result, she slipped into the bottom of a well of panic and suffering.
This is certainly not a children’s motion picture, as there is more than a child would manage to understand. There are rather adult issues that are meant to stimulate the mind. The film maker to some extent is making a point that at some point in our lives, we all play the role of Grace in the movie. But Grace is tough. Out of the blizzard of familial troubles, she comes to draw the light from an unusual and odd, yet warm friendship with an imaginative old woman, named Pinky, who is brimming with life and soaks it all up — Jacki Weaver, who plays the role, is so vibrant. As grace tries to understand life through the lenses of pinky it is hard not to fall in love with their beautiful friendship as degreed pinky’s years and wisdom are surely priceless.
Grace’s persistent memories also depict her as a victim of school bullying who thought, this is a natural defense mechanism of survival for some person. For her own safety she soon went into hibernation, but not before being hurt. The director does not waste that fact but rather uses it creatively, by portraying a huge fleshy mollusk shell on Grace herself, who is a school girl. Other severe facts in life are equally disturbing – in the end it was a clean and wild couple who brought up Grace, being rather careless about her barely any needs. What would a girl do? Remain insulated, look within and gain wisdom.
The author uses a number of devices in building up Grace’s and Pinky’s relationship. One such perspective is that the story begins with death – death is a significant turning point in Grace and Pinky’s plotline. At the very beginning, we see Grace sitting by Pinky’s bed. The final wish of the woman is for Grace to scatter her ashes in the garden. She does it and at the same time releases jars containing snails which have “adopted” the lady over time. The narrator recalls how Grace became so impressed with snails – a passion that started with her mother, who adores mollusks, and how this love was nurtured all through her lifetime. She was so fond of snails that she read about them as much as it was possible and amassed a collection of figurines, all the varieties of which she could find.
There is also Gilbert, Grace’s twin brother whom we get to know also has some interesting mannerisms of his own. For instance, when Grace is concerned about the bullies and becomes introverted, Gilbert is the reverse, he is gloomy, and the likely arsonist. The filmmakers and stop-motion creatives working with these characters gave them huge eyes which were filled with emotions and their facial expressions were synchronized perfectly.
Eric Bana, who was also casted by the filmmaker in Mary and Max, provides the voice for James the Magistrate. It is one of the few adult roles that are key in the plot of Grace. The voice roles are, in fact, the best things about this movie. Sarah Snook has given a pretty nice comforting voice to Grace which goes hand in hand with the complexities that this particular character encompasses. Some would say, it’s an echo you wouldn’t be bothered to complain about as you’d love hearing it in another similar venture. This is quite different from Snook’s character as Shiv in HBO drama Succession.
Passionately, however, appreciate the visual spectacles over here. Adam Elliot filmed the movie using stop motion animation which is exceptionally old if not horrifically labor-intensive. It implies that every prop, every set and every character was a hand crafted object made by many specialists who had to develop approximately seven thousand pieces to tell the story of Grace. We are talking about a hundred of eyeballs, mouths and arms.
Lest one dazzles oneself with fantasies of how it is done, for these stop motion animation workers will have to physically carry out the excruciatingly mundane task of shifting the characters one at a time, one frame at a time, all through prolonged hours in dark. Clearly, physically Elliot didn’t turn to CGI, and there is much to be thankful to cinematographer Gerald Thompson for thanks to the sheer undoubted skill. In making the film, more than two hundred sets were produced and in excess of one hundred and thirty-five thousand pictures were required.
Eliot’s Mary and Max which had the late Phillip Seymour Hoffman’s voice is quite convincingly a worthy sequel, if not an improvement. In such contexts, offered adult themes, complexity of the subject, subtle narration, involution and giggles, the author, putting it mildly, does not dazzle, but presents the audience with a truly mega-plotted and award clinching story. Memoir of a Snail is one of the best pictures of the year, thanks to amazing voice casts. This snail moves into the very center of your heart. What a victory.
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