'Memoir of a Snail' is a brutal sadness avalanche
IFC
Maybe when both “memoir” and “snail” are in the title, there’s the chance that a movie will be more of a grueling monologue. Writer-director Adam Elliot drew such bittersweet beauty out of loneliness in 2009’s “Mary and Max,” though, that I’d have been excited for “Diary of a Tick” or “Saga of a Slug” or any other sort of heart-wrenching exploration of emotional and physical smallness.
But sheesh. “Memoir of a Snail” makes a drag look like a party. Nearly an hour has gone by before the clouds part and there’s any relief from an accumulating pile of one horrible thing after another befalling Grace (Sarah Snook) and her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee), and even then it’s both brief and ultimately driven by something painful. If that weren’t enough, nearly the entire movie unfolds as a voiceover-filled flashback while Grace, who for most of her life has dressed like the tiny creature she most relates to, tells the story of her life to a snail named Sylvia, who if we’re going to nitpick was actually there for a decent amount of this.
More importantly, “Memoir of a Snail” might have worked as a testament to resilience if it weren’t so punishing (to name just a few: birth defects, bullying, drunk driving-caused paraplegia, death in childbirth, addiction, child labor and exploitation, religious extremism), or if it spent more time in the nuances it seems to identify about people who grow up without a steady support system. Instead, Elliot just loads up on tragedy and cruelty until the film embodies the same despair as its main character, which safe to say isn’t what most people want out of a movie right now. Yes, the idea of karma appears eventually, and Elliot, in some late events and messages that feel forced, unexplored and unconvincing, seems to have at least a fraction of faith in determination and the value of better late than never.
But where “Mary and Max” utilized an instant-classic Philip Seymour Hoffman vocal performance and a delicate story of remote connection to find sweetness in the face of hardship, “Memoir of a Snail,” which also eventually hinges on writing letters and long-distance pleas, is more likely to knock you down than win you over. It doesn’t matter how unique and wonderful the animation is when the story practically should include antidepressants with each ticket purchase.
D+
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