Movie Review Time (Not Really) - Womb

It's 2.24 and I just finished watching Womb, a movie that really isn't about incest and more about cloning.

It's funny, because when I got the movie, all I've ever heard of it was the incest part.
I only read the cloning part in the summary.

Come to think of it, it's really not about incest at all.
Because she's a surrogate. They're not actually related.

It's a dystopia. Well, not really a dystopia. It's not like Fahrenheit or Running Man or anything extreme. In fact, it's technically not a dystopia at all. If you step a few years into the future, this is how the world would be. There's no radical change, everything is still hauntingly normal and raw except for cloning and the the slight divisions it creates.

To summarize, it starts out with the typical girl (Eva Green) who fell in love with a boy (Matt Smith), and they were separated but reunited at a later time though he died shortly after. For all the waiting she's done, their time together was woefully inadequate, which pushed her into obtaining his DNA and going to the cloning center, and she served as his surrogate mother, gave birth and raised him believing he's a normal person until he became Matt Smith again. And then there's a bit of sexual tension between them, and then he finds out he's a clone. He gets pissed. They have ten seconds of sex. He leaves the house.

That's it.

If it sounds inadequate, it's because it is.

I think the movie starts out very strongly. I was definitely caught by both Eva Green and Matt's performances. Matt at the beginning especially cause he reminded me of people I used to know with the same background, and it was surprising and heart-wrenchingly familiar how similar his gestures and expressions were to theirs.

And then there's the negative space.
Oh, the terrible, terrible negative space.
Long silences punctuated by harsh, blunt screeches.
The landscape, thrush, the empty sea.
I think that was the heart of the entire piece.

It would be daft to just say the atmosphere reflected the sadness of the story.
It's not sadness, I think, it's more of a constant reminder that there's something wrong.
That however normal she tries to make everything seem for the boy, it's still there, secrets and a certain element of wrongness hanging between them. Keeps the tension taut, keeps the audience remembering and thinking.

And maybe that's why the ending was so quick.
Maybe it's supposed to leave you hanging and empty so you'll actively think about everything that happened.

Why was it presented this way?
What is the sex at the end supposed to mean? That she got what she wanted?
Why did she cry and smile after the sex?
What is putting her hand on the table meant to symbolize?
What is the light at the end supposed to mean?
That she's beginning again and that it was okay, because it was a fabricated being all along and it could never substitute for the real thing?
No, that can't be it.

This isn't the kind of movie anyone should watch at 3 am with semi-functioning brains.
 At the end I just wanted to grab Matt Smith and pull him back in so he'd stop being so symbolic.


Although,
I thought Matt's performance at the ending scene was inadequate. I can't really decide whether it's the script, or his acting, or the directing. I don't think I can make any decisions with a semi-functioning brain. But yes.

In the end, despite this feeling of emptiness I continue to suffer from, I would still recommend it. It's a good, raw film - the kind that you need to watch once in a while to keep your soul pleased. You might want a dark, comfortable place with headphones on (because the audio choices are brilliant) and just watch it alone.

Alternatively, if you want to watch something about clones but without the emotional experience, you could check out Doctor Who Series 6 Ep 5: The Rebel Flesh and Ep 6: The Almost People, which are fantastical and exciting with family-friendly moral lessons and no lingering feelings of emptiness.

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LIVE FEED 


Fuck.
Fuck.
This movie is so fucking raw.
I've cried thrice and it's only been 30 minutes.


I can't believe i'm sympathizing with a psychopath.


That is the most fucking terrifying sound i've heard in fucking years.
I shouldn't have closed my eyes.


Crap. That's Matt Smith fucking on the ground.


39 00
Shit, she's crazy. She's crazy.
Her eyes.
Fuck.
Why I am I watching this at 1.15 am.


59.00
Fuck you, Tonks. Fuck you.


1.20
Oh crap no please don't kill her.
No, no not that killing music.


1.22
Matt no, Matt.


1.23
Shit, SHIT. NO FUCKING SHIT.