Director: Ari Folman
Cast: Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Danny Huston, Jon Hamm, Paul Giamatti, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Sami Gayle
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 122 minutes.
Synopsis: Actress Robin Wright, playing herself, sells her likeness to a scrupulous film company wishing to immortalise actors and actresses in ageless computer form.
Ari Folman jumps from his remarkable animated documentary WALTZ WITH BASHIR into a mixture of live-action and animated satire, with biting fangs aimed at the film industry. It’s a brave start if Folman wishes to pursue a career in the more mainstream world of fictional narratives, but judging by the experimental and convoluted nature of THE CONGRESS, conforming is the last thing on his mind.
The plot is a very intriguing blend of science-fiction and genuine issues the film industry currently faces. Robin Wright is her middle-aged self, in a career which is suffering from a lack of opportunities. Her agent Al (Keitel) tells her she is about to be offered the last offer of her career and all she needs to do is sell her likeness to studio Miramount, headed by Jeff (Huston), and promise to never act again. With an ailing son (Smit-McPhee), whose eyesight and hearing and gradually worsening, Wright decides to take the offer.
This opening live-action sequence is filled with the obvious but very funny satire as hinted at by the likes of not-so-subtle jibes such as ‘Miramount’. Huston hams up teh screen in the most positive of ways, as well as giving us perfectly oblivious but understandable dialogue that both highlights the ignorance of big studio chiefs as well as explaining their thoughts in business terms. It’s also a very emotional first act, as Wright must face-up to her dwindling career. It’s brave and Wright allows for poor decisions and lack of forward thinking to be highlighted.
Bizarrely though, all of this seems to be left behind during the second and third acts. The film zooms forward 20 years to show us a world where the computer graphics have advanced ro a state where an entire imaginary animated world has been constructed where people live out their fantasies. This drops behind all of the focus on cinema and becomes a more generalised tale about living through fantasy akin to the likes of THE MATRIX. This animated world is filled with visual metaphors and explores ideas of choice and illusion, but ultimately feels disconnected from the first act.
The animation is stunning and takes on a deceptively friendly cartoonish vibe which echoes shades of 1950s classics. Many sequences are just littered with so much detail you find yourself exploring the individual shots for celebrity cameos and bizarre goings on. It’s unlike any animated feature being created today and captures a wonderful sense of sci-fi and desolate emptiness while ironically being bright and colourful.
As a complete cinematic experience, it’s hard to recommend a film that feels so disjointed from act to act. The complexities of the plot also become an unnecessary headache, especially when you compare it to the joyous and funny obviousness of the earlier scenes. A film of three parts, where it begins with focus on plot and satire and soon delves into a psychotropic realm of confusing philosophies but stunning visuals. Strong on their own, but rather bitter when mixed together.
[usr=3] THE CONGRESS is in cinemas 15th August.
