Writers: Tarik Saleh, Fredrik Edin, Martin Hultman, and Stig Larsson
Country: Denmark, Norway, Sweden (English language)
Running Time: 86 min.
Austin's Rating:
What a fascinating film. I can't get over how interesting it was to look at. It's beautifully neutral scenery, mixed with the bleak, totalitarian "Big Business" just made for an interesting experience. But the plot lacked, I thought. It felt like a hybrid of George Orwell's 1984 with a Katsuhiro Ôtomo anime. I just thought they were going too far with the twists; back and forth, who is right and who is wrong... but I'll get to that in just a bit.
An opening caption reads, "The end of the millennium marked the end of many things. Natural resources dried up, the global financial markets crashed, and the crisis that connected all the people, still left the individual isolated in his ruin." The first problem is that the film never fully explains why or how this happened. It just assumes we will accept it, which I allowed myself to do, but it leaves a lot of questions unanswered. How did this effect the rest of the world? Why are so many people in Europe speaking such perfect English? etc.
The film is set in the year 2024, where a collapsed Europe lies in shambles. We follow Roger (voice by Vincent Gallo), a white-collar peon at the bottom level of an unbearably tedious eight-to-five job. Roger's character lacks a certain... je ne sais quoi. He is a likeable character, but frankly, he's not very relatable which was a let down. Gallo, however, delivers his lines with fluidity and precision. So I loved ever word that fumbled out of his mouth.
Roger begins to accept that he may be schizophrenic when he starts hearing a voice in his head that is not his own. The owner of the voice is Stefan (voice of Alexander Skarsgård), an operator at the Trexx headquarters. What is Trexx you might ask -- other than sounding like a villain's name from Aeon Flux? It is the largest, and only majorly successful, company in all of Europe. This company owns the largest underground railway in the world, simply named The Metro System. They made other forms of transportation illegal so to monopolize the market. The Metro unites all of Europe and the Soviet Union, eliminating the borders to bring peace and unity -- or so that's what they say.
Trexx also owns a shampoo company called Dangst. Once the shampoo is applied to the scalp, it implants organic microchips that burrow into the helpless customers' auditory senses, allowing the headquarters to hear their thoughts and see through their eyes. This is a serious breach of privacy, but what the public doesn't know, won't hurt them, right? I hope you sense my sarcasm. Anyways, once Roger uncovers this information, he focuses on finding the man inside his head.
On his way to work via railway, after his bike was mangled by transportation Nazis, he meets a mysterious woman named Nina (voice of Juliette Lewis), the daughter of Trexx CEO, Ivan Bahn (voice of Udo Kier). Nina wants to destroy her father's business because he is basically becoming the Antichrist (not literally, but theoretically). He even manages to turn the Eiffel Tower into a neon billboard. This is where the story starts to sway a little, for me. The film turns into a slower paced who-should-I-believe mystery, where Roger is trying to choose between the beautiful blonde vixen, or the lonely corporate operator in his head. They both have valuable information, but they're pulling him apart.
Stefan looks nearly identical to Roger, to the point that Roger is often mistaken for him. So seeing the similarity, Nina steals Stefan's Trexx badge and hands it to Roger in the hope that he will take on a mission fit for Ethan Hunt; which involves a Hello Kitty doll, and something called a Flux Compression Generator. You thought of Back to the Future too, right?
First off, when this device is mentioned, it is so non-chalant that I actually laughed out loud. That fact that anyone would mention a Flux anything as if it were a common household item is humorous. Secondly, after Nina explains the plan, Roger replies with, "I wanna do it." This answer does not fit the personality of the Roger that's been developing for the previous hour. He would be nervous, asking questions, wanting to find an alternate solution. But no, he answers with a simple, "I wanna do it."
There is one thing I haven't mentioned because it was kind of pointless, even though I wish director Tarik Saleh would have incorporated it more into the story, but Roger has a girlfriend. Anna is her name and she is a simple young lady. She's not as beautiful as Nina, but not ugly by any means. She has a half sleeve of tattoos on her arm and a child-like round face. She's a character I feel we could have attached to, but she was underused.
Also, I didn't think the film paid off in the end. I guess good prevails and Roger ends up with Anna and they live happily ever after, but we don't know how it affects the world. I mean, if you were to destroy Wal-Mart's corporate headquarters, millions of people would be effected, not just the higher-ups. I would have accepted a caption at the end, or something.
I still recomme
nd the film because of it's visuals and characters. Even though neither one of those elements are utilized to their fullest potential, they're still entertaining nonetheless. There is a character named Wayne Marshall, a big-business owner from Texas that can't read. This guy is hysterical. Every time he comes on the screen I laugh just at the sight of him.
Also, the animation is really unique. From what I've read, it's composed of manipulated photographs. I don't know how much CG was used (if any), or if there were actual models for the city, but it looks truly extraordinary. It won Future Film Festival Digital Award at the Venice Film Festival, and Best Music at the Stockholm Film Festival; the music is beautiful, indeed. Metropia deserved to win even more with it's impressive production value.
Lastly, despite the fact that the plot had some leaks, I still found it interesting. I feel I would be doing it a great injustice if I didn't at least say: behind all of its faults lie something worth witnessing. It has an atmosphere that draws you in, and that is why it is so easy to just accept the feeble explainations they give for why something inconceivable is happening. I know I poked fun at many of them above, but they all contribute to an overall tone. All in all, check out this movie. It's not spectacular, but impressive. I think you'll be able to agree that you've never seen anything like it.
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