Mute – There’s a good film here (somewhere)

Alas, poor Duncan Jones, I knew him well.  I didn’t.  But I did really enjoy his first two sci-fi films ‘Moon’ and ‘Source Code.’ These were followed by the – sadly forgettable – big-budget ‘Warcraft’ movie and hopes were high when he returned to his (more low budget/high concept?) sci-fi roots.  However, it’s fair to say that this ‘straight-to-Netflix’ release has been met with ‘divisive’ responses – and by ‘divisive’ I mainly mean negative.  I really wanted to like this, so I did my best to force the nay-sayers from my mind and enjoy the film.  I wish I did enjoy the film.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s not ‘bad-bad,’ it’s just not that good either.

It’s set in the near future where technology is, er, slightly better than it is now.  Actually, for its futuristic setting technology isn’t really a big part of the story.  An Amish man who doesn’t speak due to a childhood accident travels from America to Berlin to meet up with his girlfriend, only for her to go missing in mysterious circumstances, setting him on a quest to find out what’s happened to her.

First of all the film does look great.  I reckon it’s pretty difficult to talk about this film without mentioning ‘Bladerunner’ as Ridley Scott’s epic really did set the benchmark when it came to portraying dystopian, tech-driven cities of the future and ‘Mute’ seems to pay homage to this look and feel.  I’m not sure of other people’s complaints when it came to this movie, but my main issue was the fact that our hero never spoke.  Yes, he’s a good actor who does his best to express as many emotions as he can through his body language and facial expressions and for that he should definitely be applauded.  I could have lived with that, if it wasn’t for Paul Rudd’s character.  He plays a particularly sleazy villain who no one would ever really root for, if it wasn’t for the face that he played his part so well and the hero never said a word.  Therefore, having watched the film, I find myself finding the bad-guy far more memorable than the hero we were supposed to identify with and support.

I guess there’s a reason why ‘Mute’ was released ‘straight-to-DVD’ (or ‘Netflix’ in this day and age).  The studio was obviously worried that it wouldn’t make anywhere near the money back it needed to if given a theatrical release at the Box Office and I can understand why.  It’s hard to see ‘Mute’ getting enough attention in the cinema to make it a financial success.  It’s not a bad film and I guess you get what you pay for.  I reckon the reviews would be even more harsh if the viewers had to pay ‘full price’ at the cinema in order to watch this.  If you feel like investing two hours into a slow moving sci-fi film where the hero doesn’t speak, leaving him wide open to being eclipsed by the man we’re supposed to hate, then you’re probably a minority.  I didn’t hate it, I’m just certain that Duncan Jones can do much better.

6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights