A new movie from Academy Award winning Adam Elliott, I’m in. Memoir Of A Snail is everything you expect and an important reminder to live life forward.
When Grace Pudel (voiced by Sarah Snook) and her twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) lost their mother in childbirth, they were raised by their French, ex-juggling father Percy. A loving father he tried to give them a good life while coping with his own grief. Through the tough times there was laughter. But life got tougher.
When life left him a paraplegic, Percy turned to drink. All the while the children clung to each other. Sadly, when Percy died the two young children are adopted to separate families, Grace went to Canberra, Percy to Perth.
Grace moved in with a free-spirited couple spending most of her time in her bedroom where she collected snail memorabilia, read romance novels and took care of her guinea pigs. When the couple took off Grace was left to her own devices until she met outrageous octogenarian Pinky (Jackie Weaver).
Gilberts faired worse and spent much of his life working out how to get back to Grace.
The movie touches on big, difficult subjects like death, grief, mistreatment, bigotry and more. It’s important to remember that this an adult animation movie, with strong, important messages, including that life can be cruel and we need to live it moving forward.
As the audience sat in silence at the end of the movie I pondered:
- You get so caught up in the story you forget this is stop animation and that it’s taken years to put the scenes together;
- The hand-crafted detail is stunning;
- The movie delivers the message in such a clever, subtle way. It’s a delight instead of being hit you over the head by a righteous sermon.
Featuring the voice talents of Eric Bana, Nick Cave, and Magda Szubanski. The movie had sold-out sessions across Melbourne Film Festival.
Luna Cinema has a virtual Q and A with the director on October 2nd. For more information go to Luna Cinema.
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