WOMB: I ROVESCI DELLA MEDAGLIA DEL 'PIANETA CLONAZIONE' LA PROTAGONISTA EVA GREEN E' CHIAMATA A RACCOGLIERNE I FRUTTI DOLCI-AMARI
Dal 31 AGOSTO - PREVIEW in ENGLISH by JEANNETTE CATSOULIS ("The New York Times" - www.nytimes.com) - Dal Festival del Cinema di Locarno 2010 e dal TIFF (TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2010)
A woman's consuming love forces her to bear the clone of her dead beloved. From his infancy to manhood, she faces the unavoidable complexities of her controversial decision.
Commento critico (a cura di JEANNETTE CATSOULIS, The New York Times)
No amount of therapy could fix the central characters in âWomb,â a morally ripe science-fiction tale remodeled as shockingly inert love story. If the 20-odd seconds of blank screen squatting pointlessly amid the opening credits arenât enough warning that youâre in for some seriously sluggish storytelling, then the adoption of a snail as one of the central motifs should drive the point home.
Filmed in Germany on the North Sea coast, the story plays out in an indeterminate time when cloning is apparently commonplace, even if its fruits are treated like outcasts. Itâs difficult to know, because weâre trapped for the duration on a windswept beach where Rebecca (Eva Green) has reunited with Tommy (Matt Smith, the latest incarnation of the Doctor in âDoctor Whoâ), the childhood sweetheart she left a dozen years earlier. A few minutes of screen time and one road accident later, Tommy is no more, and
Rebecca has been artificially impregnated with her expired loverâs tissue.
What follows is a deeply weird study of psychosexual obsession that, backed by Peter Szatmariâs ravishingly salty photography, could have evolved into a fecund exploration of biological ethics. Instead weâre confined to a beach shack where Rebecca and Tommy 2.0 â soon full grown though his mother never ages a day â share pregnant silences and awkward physical contact. Sheâs such a cipher, and her motives so lubricious, that we want to shake her.
Unlike Jonathan Glazerâs similarly themed and hugely superior âBirthâ (2004) â a genuinely creepy dive into lost love and unyielding heartache â this stagnant drama from the Hungarian director Benedek Fliegauf fizzles. But if you have a son approaching 30 who needs a swift kick out of the nest, by all means buy him a ticket. Heâll be gone before you can say, âOedipus.â
Secondo commento critico (a cura di La parola al film)