Memoir of a Snail
What can be more limiting than the shells that others put us into our lives? The shells that we put on ourselves. Justices Canoe lift this concept of the intangible burdens one carries such as self-doubt, sadness, loss and hurts as the theme in Adam Elliot’s powerful stop motion drama Memoir of a Snail which really stands out from other animated films. It is an exquisite film but most importantly in terms of emotional perspective, it is a movie that oscillates between laughter and sorrow, judiciously reminding the audience that life can only be experienced in one direction, that of time.
Sarah Snook, who gained fame from “Succession” and many other major awards, successfully personifies Grace Snail. She recounts her life’s tale to her pet snail Sylvia, lamenting the demise of her best companion, Pinky (played by a superb Jacki Weaver), because that was the last person on earth that she cared for. This is a tale of unashamed tragedy. Mother died during childbirth, and father, being a paraplegic, died too early to bring up Grace or her twin brother Gilbert (played by Kodi Smit McPhee as a grown up). The twins were separated after the death of the father, which resulted in grace being raised by a pair of threesomes. Yes, this is a remarkably adult stop motion film, possibly breaking records for the number of breasts seen in this form of animation in what the critics return this to over to Gilbert, a family of fanatical Christians at the other coast of the country. Almost all of “Memoir of a Snail,” is filled by letters exchanged between Grace and Gilbert interspersed with Gilbert and Grace each expressing the same desire only to be free of life’s shackles.
One can even argue, and quite convincingly, that Memoir of a Snail is one of the most thematically deep films of the year despite it being a stop motion film. Elliot has created an imaginative world, one that could be likened to the works of Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet found in Delicatessen and Amelie an inspiration that further seems plausible with the presence of JPJ regular Dominique Pinon in the voice cast. Some scenes have a fantasy look stylistically but it’s hammer just enough into the subconscious to make it feel real enough for the feelings to work. What I mean is that there won’t be snails that will talk. In many respects, this is how most kriegserfahrungen become memorable as it is a narrative of one’s day to day life but with an uncanny delivery. And as to the technical mastery of this movie, let me interrupt myself to mention actually one of the, if not the, best soundtracks I’ve heard this year, by Elena Kats Chernin, which is so beautiful that one sees it as another character in the movie. It is central to the enchantment that this film is pregnant with.
It is easy to ignore the fact that the Alec’s film is filled with strong senses, ideas, and references. Certainly you wouldn’t expect to watch a stop motion film that combines three references Plath, Lord of the Flies, and Cahiers du Cinema. Still, the author of the equally marvelous “Mary & Max” is also a terrific writer, which tends to be neglected in the animation industry, which is highly visual. This is a well-developed character are just when it seems that the sad aspects of Grace’s life are starting to take their toll out of the blue, Elliot switches to enjoying the vagaries of life, and telling snails and people that they cannot go backwards. This is the emphasis. It is when we regard life itself as overbearing that someone else’s hand, a memory of someone close, or even a book can alter the perception.
In the case of “Memoir of a Snail”, it’s not every single frame and every single line that has been worked on over and over again, and yet the film does not feel over written either. Others can beg to differ and may think that it is about time that the film allowed someone to take a breath emotionally. But this is not how a narrative works. Because this narrative enables Elliot to track Grace’s life up to this point, Elliot’s narrative has so many such layers to it, from the childhood bullying insecurities that Grace has to endure, to Gilbert’s terrible and overly judgmental family, and finally, to the way Pinky simply sweeps aside everything that comes in her way. At the core of ‘Memoire of a Snail’ is undisputedly, it seems, waning brightness of Pinky which beautifully justifies not only the character of Grace but also the fact that one must enjoy every moment of life.
This is a piece of text in which I feel Elliot has done a stunning job of integrating many concepts in a way that people can easily harness different parts of that into their lives but the only thing I will take away with me for a long period of time, actually is about Grace’s future husband. He collects broken pottery, but not to restore it to its original aesthetic. “Everything can be restored, and cracks will be.” When people shed the eggshells that they have adorned themselves with during the course of their lives, they do it with a deep sense of loss. The fissures remain in view. But there is also the option to rather embrace these fissures.
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