La Femme Recommeds…Snowpiercer

The world is frozen in Bong Joon Ho's Snowpiercer, but luckily for the remaining citizens on the title train, an eccentric billionaire, Wilford, (is there any other kind?) built a continuous engine train that goes all around the world in one year and even though the outside world is dead, all of the one percenters who bought a ticket get to live out the apocalypse in nearly unbelievable and ignorant luxury.  The benevolent Wilford even allowed the dirty masses who didn't have tickets to stuff themselves like sardines into the steerage at the back of the train.  Nearly eighteen years later the train is still traveling around the world and the perfect balance of the haves at the front and the have-nots at the back has reached a breaking point. Quite a concept, no?

Like my last movie I recommended, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Snowpiercer is very plot heavy  and as an amateur critic I find it hard to not share every detail, but I will try my best to be concise:  Chris Evans is our hero, Curtis, and boy do the tailies (Lost forever, right?) need one.  Sure, they didn't freeze to death but they live in squalor, survive on repulsive gelatinous protein bars and every once in a while some of the guards come and take a couple kids away.  The tailies wise old guru,  Gilliam (John Hurt), a kind man missing his arms and legs, are itching for a revolt and know the only way anything will change for them is to take over the engine.  The tailies see their opportunity, in fact, its almost too easy at first, and begin the revolt up to the front.  As with any adventure movie, along the way they free Namgoong Minsu and his daughter.  Minsu is an engineer who designed the locks between the cars who is seemingly addicted to Kronole, a charcoal looking drug popular among the elite, but sure seems more interested in collecting it than smoking it.  Together, this motley crew makes their way to the front facing numerous challenges, to say the least.

Describing this movie makes it seem supremely silly.   And it kind of is, when it isn't being overwhelmingly bleak.  Fortunately, Snowpiercer hits some of my cinematic sweet spots: highly ambitious to the point of foolishness,  over the top but pitch perfect performances and lots of pretty stuff to look at.  Although the film exists in shades of grey, Bong uses the confines of the train to great effect.  Bong manages to build a pretty convincing world in this train, he builds great suspense with the "what's behind that door concept", each time, we see the tailies open a door, a weird, funny or even downright terrifying new world awaits them.  They slowly go from the appropriately dingy steerage section to the front of the train, the lavish world the elites live in.  The film is an interesting series of vignettes in which new scene and new car holds a new discovery, from an aquarium to a nightclub to everything in between.  Bong manages to hold the tone somewhere between an action movie (the fight scene between the rebels and an almost medieval army is stunning and scary and ends with a beautiful visual punch when they end up in a tunnel and are thrown into complete darkness, that ends up being lit by night vision and fire) to a dark comedy (the classroom where the children rejoice in a ditty about not freezing and dying).  Its an awful lot of fun for a movie about the end of the world.

Chris Evans doesn't have much charisma as Curtis and it does make the viewer wonder why he is even chosen for such a role.  Although, I do admire Bong for leaving a lot of the character development to essentially the last fifteen minutes of the movie, without an actor with charm and the chops to imply a back story without exposition, it makes him too much of a blank slate.  Luckily the supporting cast makes up for it, Octavvia Spencer, Ewen Bremmer, Jon Hurt and Jamie Bell liven up the dullness of our hero.  And Song Kang-ho and Go Ah-sung are spectacular as father and daughter and give the movie the real emotional stakes it needs.   Kang-ho is unpredictable as Namgoong Minsu, a man with a pretty interesting ulterior motive and Ah-sung is charming as his sweet natured daughter.  But for me, Tilda Swinton steals the show as a ridiculous Margaret Thatcheresque agent of Wilford's, Mason.  She has ridiculous teeth and wigs and makeup and accent and costume, and pretty much everything and she so easily could be caricature and only used for comedy.  When she delivers a speech to the tailies about how they are shoes and she is a hat is is funny and chilling all at once, she may look silly, but she is deathly serious in her devotion to Wilford and her true, slimy nature is revealed piece by piece. She is so fascinating and strange and charismatic that you can't take your eyes off of her.  Swinton is over the top in the best way possible, its the kind of performance that can't help but be memorable.

 Unfortunately in the end, Snowpiercer, like so many ambitious film can't quite make it work.  Its difficult to discuss in this review without spoiling to much so I will be delicate and apologize for being cryptic. Eventually Curtis makes it to the front of the train and confronts Wilford in a perfectly calm antechamber.  All the while, the remaining rebels are in a fight for their lives.  The juxtaposition of complete calm and complete chaos diminishes both.  What bothered me the most though was the conversation between Curtis Wilford and the ultimate reveal about the nature of the train and the rebellion.  What Bong does with this revelation essentially makes nearly the entire film meaningless.  The journey, the deaths of his companions, the people he trusted, all becomes senseless. I understand the need for an "Explanation" of Wilford and his train but the way it was staged, edited and acted sucked all the life out of the movie.  Bong tries to end the film with a bang, but it ends up more like a whimper.  Snowpiercer is a pretty fun journey, but unfortunately the ultimate destination leaves much to be desired.

Julie