Mammoth (Mammut) poster & wallpaper

Michelle Williams, Gael García Bernal, Thomas McCarthy

While on a trip to Thailand, a successful American businessman tries to radically change his life. Back in New York, his wife and daughter find their relationship with their live-in Filipino maid chan...( read more  read more... )ging around them. At the same time, in the Philippines, the maid's family struggles to deal with her absence.

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71% liked it

2,022 ratings

R

Directed by: Lukas Moodysson

Release Date: November 20, 2009

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Flixster Reviews (146)

  • her69eyes
    October 28, 2009
    her69eyes
    With films like "Lilya 4-ever" and "Show Me Love", Swedish auteur Lukas Moodysson has cemented himself as one of the most interesting directors working today. His latest effort is "Mammoth", his first English-language film, and a return to traditional narrative after two highly e...( read more)xperimental stream-of-consciousness pieces. The response to the film has been split, with IMDB users rating it fairly high, while attendees at the Berlin film festival infamously booed loudly after the screening.

    Comparisons to "Babel" have been drawn, and they're warranted - the film is structured as a multi-narrative drama dealing with globalization from three perspectives. It begins with Leo (Gael García Bernal) and Ellen (Michelle Williams), a yuppie New York couple consumed by their work. Ellen is an emergency surgeon, and Leo has found unlikely success by launching a social networking site with a focus on video games. Leo's job takes him to Thailand alongside a business partner, Bob (Tom McCarthy, director of "The Visitor" and "The Station Agent"), and meanwhile Ellen stays at home with their daughter, Jackie (Sophie Nyweide), and the Fillipino nanny, Gloria (Marife Necesito).

    In the Phillippines, Gloria has two children of her own. Salvador (Jan Nicdao) is the older boy who, in an attempt to bring his mother back home, looks for work. Meanwhile, Gloria has become a sort of surrogate mother to Jackie in New York, much to Ellen's chagrin. She becomes jealous of the nanny, frustrated that her daughter is more interested in learning about Filipino culture with Gloria rather than spending time with her own mother. In the third story, and the most out-of-place, Leo befriends a prostitute who goes by the name of Cookie (Run Srinikornchot).

    Where Moodysson mostly goes wrong is in assuming the audience is braindead. He repeats exposition, lingers on obvious metaphors, and, even in the most literal sense, at one point he has a character describe what a Mammoth is ("it's a hairy elephant..."). The film, as it is, struggles at finding something to say - but in stripping down the intellect bare, the film becomes a meandering work that requires little effort from the audience.

    Bernal and Williams are two actors I very much adore, but their performances here are a bit dull - one could speculate it's due to the language barrier between Moodysson and his performers. Only Run Srinikornchot injects the film with any sort of life, but her part in this ensemble is so far removed from the central Gloria-Salvador thread that it seems to be an entirely different universe.

    "Mammoth" mostly kind of sits, a sort of lifeless self-important picture with little to say. It's finale is insulting - an obvious tangent that is so manipulative that it undermines everything that has come before it. Considering the level of the talents both on and behind the camera, "Mammoth" is a, dare I say... mammoth... of a disappointment!
  • rebvodka042099
    July 27, 2009
    rebvodka042099
    Lukas Moddysson is definitely a director I admire greatly and I'm not really happy about the fact that he directed an American film, but unlike many other directors who leave their roots behind, he didn't lose either his edge or his signature.

    The performances are great to a poi...( read more)nt; Michelle Williams for me never proved much, and Gael García Bernal could have evidently done much better. The photography is great, and of course the direction and writing - belonging to Moodysson.

    All throughout the movie I was expecting something to happen, something shocking and tremendous. It's a movie that definitely keeps you on edge. But it is exactly that which makes it so great. That even though it's condescending and follows a few cliches, it has an inner power and intensiveness. Not a masterpiece, not Moodysson's best, but it's a great movie nonetheless.
  • rs4fun1
    November 23, 2009
    rs4fun1
    being lonely and sepeaated from your beloved ones can really crush you

    and make you feel empty from inside..

    this movie touched my heart..
  • sexydeadstar
    November 4, 2009
    sexydeadstar
    Wow this film looks like it's going to be extremely good I highly recommend watching the trailer and not just going by the Synopsis on here. Looks like it may become a new favourite, can't wait to see it!
  • arvidas
    August 25, 2009
    arvidas
    An European-looking american movie. Nice soundtrack.
  • jenn1984106
    July 23, 2009
    jenn1984106
    Really good cast and I seriously enjoyed the soundtrack of this film. Quite slow though for the first hour.
  • filmkim
    June 8, 2009
    filmkim
    I did not like this film!
  • mattbauer
    February 10, 2009
    mattbauer
    Tremendous! Babel 2009.

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