Mute (2018) - Movie Review

 

The only thing worse than a bad idea is a good idea used badly. And in the realms of science fiction, the inherent freedom of the genre allows for a wealth of possibilities for stories to tell. However, as I have unfortunately gotten into before like with Self/Less and Downsizing, there’s a difference between having possibilities and actually making them pay off. With writer/director Duncan Jones’ latest, we see one of the more bewildering examples of this in action.

The premise itself is honestly quite unique, involving bartender Leo who was rendered mute in a childhood accident, when his Amish parents refused surgery to repair his voice box. This kind of direct comparison of old world and new world technology makes for some decent visual ideas, shown with Leo’s knack for woodcarving and the sense of alienation of being a product of Amish culture in a cyber-futuristic Berlin. Add to that the simple fact of the lack of verbal communication, forcing him to follow the breadcrumb trail to his missing girlfriend without the one method that those around him are most comfortable with, and the main character here is pretty solid on paper.

There’s also the other side of the coin with Cactus Bill and Duck, a pair of American black market surgeons on the run from the law after going AWOL. Not only are the performances by Paul Rudd and Justin Theroux respectively pretty damn good, with Rudd bringing a lot of watchability as the unrepentant jackass with a fierce sense of protection over his daughter, their respective characters show a certain complexity to them. Not only that, their on-screen chemistry is… interesting. It’s hard to tell if the surface-level homosexual tension is genuine, or if this is just a Game Grumps-esque situation where they’re just that comfortable with each other to be joking around about that, but it ends up making their scenes together that much more engaging. More so than the lead character, in all honesty.

So, yeah, good ideas at the forefront and solid actors at its centre. However, that’s ultimately where the truly commendable aspects end as the rest of the production feels like a long series of missed opportunities. The idea of the mute detective in Leo ends up being wasted, as him being non-verbal amounts to little more than being the observer to several scenes of unwitting exposition as he traverses the seedy underbelly of the city. An underbelly that itself feels like a thin veneer to cover up how this film’s take on cyber-noir aesthetic is quite bland, where drone food delivery and sex robots are about as adventurous as the details get.

And to top all of this off, there’s maybe enough real narrative here for an hour and a half movie… maybe. Not something that goes over two hours, and that sense of padding and meandering is all too evident.