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EDITOR'S PICK
`Mama`
- not so terrifying
Rating: **
Stretched from an exciting three-minute short film of the same name,
"Mama" the feature film, is not in any way exciting. It neither has a
complicated story, nor is it a very serious film. It starts off with great
expectations, but does not sustain the excitement as it progresses.
Nevertheless, it has its moments of weirdness and creepy visual effects.
It is set during the global financial crisis of 2007 to 2008. The film starts
off with Jeff, a down and out financial businessman, murdering his business
partners and his estranged wife. He then kidnaps his infant daughters, Victoria
and Lilly, aged 3 and 1, with the intent of killing them and committing
hara-kiri (stabbing oneself in stomach).
While driving at a break-neck speed, Jeff`s car skids off the snowy path and
crashes into a forested area. He and the kids soon take refuge in an abandoned
house. Here, a supernatural force figure springs upon Jeff when he is about to
shoot his older daughter Victoria.
Five years later, it is by chance that Victoria (Megan Charpentier) and Lilly
(Isabelle Nelisse) are found alive. Only, they are now more like wild beasts
that leap, hiss and crawl about on all their fours.
But attempts by their guilt-ridden uncle Lucas (Nicolaj Coster-Waldau) and his
girlfriend Annabel (Jessica Chastain) to civilise them, incur the wrath of that
which saved them from papa`s gun.
This ghostly figure lingers around the kids, with the hope of becoming their
"Mama".
The script unravels slowly, allowing you to accept the facts, but there is too
little story to be told. The horror cliches mount and too much sloshing around
in a spooky atmosphere of flickering lights, reduce the momentum. With its
chilling images and precision stings "Mama" relies on those
tried-but-true jump scares to keep attention from wandering. It works sometimes,
but not always.
In the last twenty minutes, the film is at its weakest - not a good thing for
any movie, but too often the case with horror films. Ironically, the climax
feels both rushed and sluggish. Nearly devoid of tension, it unspools in a
long-drawn-out and unproductive mode, although the scenes leading up to the
finale advance the narrative in short, perfunctory bursts. Annabel`s emotional
connection with the children lends some buoyancy to the final sequence.
With preference of suggestion over gore, some striking monochromatic visuals,
effective camera work and brilliant performances by Chaistan and child actors
Megan and Isabelle, director Muschietti keeps concern about the discrepancies in
the story and logical hiccups at bay for a while.
Coming from the stable of director Guillermo Del Toro, "Mama" is a
good-looking motion picture that accentuates style over story. Unfortunately, it
is the overexploitation of the supernatural motivation in the resolution that
flaws the film.
Watch it if you have nothing much to do.