Mammoth (2008 film)
Encyclopedia
Mammoth is a 2009
Swedish
fiction film directed by Lukas Moodysson
, about a successful New York
couple experiencing conditions related to modern day globalization
. The couple is played by Gael García Bernal
and Michelle Williams
, in the roles of Leo and Ellen Vidales. The title superficially refers to the mammoth
ivory
pen Leo receives as a gift. In addition it relates loosely to a quote from one of Moodysson's poetry collections: "Our Savior buried like a Mammoth."
couple, totally immersed in their work. Leo is the creator of a booming gaming website, and has stumbled into a world of money and big decisions. He has to board a business flight to Thailand in order to sign a contract. What ensues in the next few days is a critique on the social dilemmas that result from globalization
.
Ellen is a dedicated emergency surgeon who devotes her long shifts to saving lives. During her work, she becomes attached to a dying boy who had been stabbed in the stomach by his mother. Leo and Ellen have an eight-year-old daughter named Jackie. Due to her parents' lack of presence in the household, she spends most of her time with her Filipino nanny Gloria, who introduces the girl to her Filipino culture and reads about Jackie's favorite subject, astronomy. Even with the little time that Ellen has for her, Jackie often prefers to be with Gloria, which provokes jealousy on Ellen's part.
Gloria has two children of her own, young boys staying in the Philippines
with their grandmother. The older boy, Salvador, who misses his mother dearly, makes frequent phone calls to her and begs her to come home. His grandmother scolds him for calling his mother so much; she urges her daughter to stay in America to make money for a better life for her family. Salvador tries to find a job so that Gloria does not have to work abroad. One night Salvador is lured and molested by a pedophile. Next morning he is found unconscious under a bridge, and is rushed to the hospital. When Gloria is informed of this incident she quits her job right away to return to her country.
In Thailand
, Leo finds out that his colleague has to negotiate additionally, which buys time for him to explore the country. Leo's trip so far has been uneventful. At a club, Leo meets a prostitute named Cookie, and pays her to not have sex with any client that evening. Later on Leo reluctantly has a romantic fling with the girl, but he regrets it afterwards. He has his colleague accept the terms offered, so that he can finish the work and return to his family in the US as soon as possible. We find out at the end that Cookie is a working class single mother who is away from her baby girl.
, where the audience showed loud dissatisfaction with the film. It was released in the United States on 20 November 2009 in a theatrical run exclusive to the IFC Center
in New York City.
. "Working women lead to infidel men and dead children at home as well as at work," journalist Per Gudmundson summarised his interpretation of the film's message in Svenska Dagbladet
. Moodysson would later respond that "They assumed I was trying to say that mothers should stay at home. That was never on my mind.", declaring that the theme of the film was the shared difficulties of characters of very different social backgrounds in coping with both work and spending proper time with their children.
Roger Ebert
of the Chicago Sun-Times
found both positive and negative aspects in the film, commenting the character of the nanny who has left her family for work in the United States: "The film intends to make us feel guilty that such people care for us and not for their own. I don't buy that." Ebert particularly praised Michelle Williams
' performance, being impressed by her ability to convincingly play completely different kinds of roles: "Wendy and Lucy
was so effective as establishing her as a helpless innocent that it's sort of a shock to see her here as a cool, competent ER surgeon." Eventually he summarised: "Mammoth is a perfectly decent film. Too bad it isn't more thoughtful. It's easy to regret misfortune if all you do is regret it."
2009 in film
The year 2009 saw the release of many films. Seven made the top 50 list of highest-grossing films, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that as of this year, their Best Picture category would consist of ten nominees, rather than five .- Highest-grossing films :Please note...
Swedish
Cinema of Sweden
Swedish cinema is known as producing many critically acclaimed movies, and during the 20th century was the most prominent of Scandinavia. This is largely due to the popularity and prominence of the directors Ingmar Bergman, Victor Sjöström, and more recently Lasse Hallström and Lukas...
fiction film directed by Lukas Moodysson
Lukas Moodysson
- External links :*...
, about a successful New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
couple experiencing conditions related to modern day globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
. The couple is played by Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal
Gael García Bernal is a Mexican film actor and director.-Early life:García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Ángel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was...
and Michelle Williams
Michelle Williams (actress)
Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek, which she played from 1998 to 2003...
, in the roles of Leo and Ellen Vidales. The title superficially refers to the mammoth
Mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...
ivory
Ivory
Ivory is a term for dentine, which constitutes the bulk of the teeth and tusks of animals, when used as a material for art or manufacturing. Ivory has been important since ancient times for making a range of items, from ivory carvings to false teeth, fans, dominoes, joint tubes, piano keys and...
pen Leo receives as a gift. In addition it relates loosely to a quote from one of Moodysson's poetry collections: "Our Savior buried like a Mammoth."
Plot
Leo and Ellen are a successful New YorkNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
couple, totally immersed in their work. Leo is the creator of a booming gaming website, and has stumbled into a world of money and big decisions. He has to board a business flight to Thailand in order to sign a contract. What ensues in the next few days is a critique on the social dilemmas that result from globalization
Globalization
Globalization refers to the increasingly global relationships of culture, people and economic activity. Most often, it refers to economics: the global distribution of the production of goods and services, through reduction of barriers to international trade such as tariffs, export fees, and import...
.
Ellen is a dedicated emergency surgeon who devotes her long shifts to saving lives. During her work, she becomes attached to a dying boy who had been stabbed in the stomach by his mother. Leo and Ellen have an eight-year-old daughter named Jackie. Due to her parents' lack of presence in the household, she spends most of her time with her Filipino nanny Gloria, who introduces the girl to her Filipino culture and reads about Jackie's favorite subject, astronomy. Even with the little time that Ellen has for her, Jackie often prefers to be with Gloria, which provokes jealousy on Ellen's part.
Gloria has two children of her own, young boys staying in the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
with their grandmother. The older boy, Salvador, who misses his mother dearly, makes frequent phone calls to her and begs her to come home. His grandmother scolds him for calling his mother so much; she urges her daughter to stay in America to make money for a better life for her family. Salvador tries to find a job so that Gloria does not have to work abroad. One night Salvador is lured and molested by a pedophile. Next morning he is found unconscious under a bridge, and is rushed to the hospital. When Gloria is informed of this incident she quits her job right away to return to her country.
In Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, Leo finds out that his colleague has to negotiate additionally, which buys time for him to explore the country. Leo's trip so far has been uneventful. At a club, Leo meets a prostitute named Cookie, and pays her to not have sex with any client that evening. Later on Leo reluctantly has a romantic fling with the girl, but he regrets it afterwards. He has his colleague accept the terms offered, so that he can finish the work and return to his family in the US as soon as possible. We find out at the end that Cookie is a working class single mother who is away from her baby girl.
Cast
The cast includes:- Gael García BernalGael García BernalGael García Bernal is a Mexican film actor and director.-Early life:García Bernal was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, the son of Patricia Bernal, an actress and former model, and José Ángel García, an actor and director. His stepfather is Sergio Yazbek, whom his mother married when García Bernal was...
as Leo Vidales - Michelle WilliamsMichelle Williams (actress)Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek, which she played from 1998 to 2003...
as Ellen Vidales - Marife NecesitoMarife NecesitoMarife Necesito is a Filipino actress on stage, film, and television productions. After portraying several obscure roles, she was cast in the film Mammoth with Mexican actor Gael García Bernal and American actress Michelle Williams.-Early life and career:...
as Gloria - Sophie NyweideSophie NyweideSophie Nyweide is a child actress. She is best known for her roles in Bella, Mammoth and the lead child role in An Invisible Sign.-Career:...
as Jackie Vidales - Thomas McCarthyThomas McCarthy (actor)Thomas Joseph McCarthy is an American actor, writer, and film director who has appeared in several movies, including Meet the Parents and Good Night, and Good Luck, and television shows such as The Wire, Boston Public, Law & Order, and the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation of Saint Maybe...
as Robert "Bob" Sanders - Run Srinikornchot as Cookie
- Jan Nicdao as Salvador
- Martin Delos Santos as Manuel
- Maria del Carmen as Grandmother
- Perry Dizon as Uncle Fernando
- Joseph Mydell as Ben Jackson
- Doña CrollDoña CrollDoña Croll is a Jamaican-born British actress. She is best known for her British soap opera roles as Pearl McHugh in Family Affairs and more recently as Vera Corrigan in the BBC soap, Doctors....
as Alice - Caesar Kobb as Anthony
- Matthew James Ryder as Bob Sander's colleague
- Piromya Sootrak as Cookie's daughter
- Pasakorn Mahakanok as Pom
- Thanita Nitna-na-nan as Pim
Release
On 23 January 2009 the film premiered in Swedish theatres. The international debut followed on 6 February at the Berlin International Film Festival59th Berlin International Film Festival
The 59th Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 February to 15 February 2009. The opening film of this year's festival was Tom Tykwer’s The International, screened out of competition...
, where the audience showed loud dissatisfaction with the film. It was released in the United States on 20 November 2009 in a theatrical run exclusive to the IFC Center
IFC Films
IFC Films is an American film distribution company based in New York, owned by AMC Networks. It distributes independent films and documentaries under the IFC Films, Sundance Selects and IFC Midnight. It operates the IFC Center....
in New York City.
Reception
The film was attacked in Swedish media for what has been perceived as misogynyMisogyny
Misogyny is the hatred or dislike of women or girls. Philogyny, meaning fondness, love or admiration towards women, is the antonym of misogyny. The term misandry is the term for men that is parallel to misogyny...
. "Working women lead to infidel men and dead children at home as well as at work," journalist Per Gudmundson summarised his interpretation of the film's message in Svenska Dagbladet
Svenska Dagbladet
Svenska Dagbladet is a daily newspaper in Sweden. The first issue appeared on 18 December 1884. Svenska Dagbladet is published in Stockholm and provides coverage of national and international news as well as local coverage of the Greater Stockholm region...
. Moodysson would later respond that "They assumed I was trying to say that mothers should stay at home. That was never on my mind.", declaring that the theme of the film was the shared difficulties of characters of very different social backgrounds in coping with both work and spending proper time with their children.
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
found both positive and negative aspects in the film, commenting the character of the nanny who has left her family for work in the United States: "The film intends to make us feel guilty that such people care for us and not for their own. I don't buy that." Ebert particularly praised Michelle Williams
Michelle Williams (actress)
Michelle Ingrid Williams is an American actress. After starting her career with television guest appearances in the early 1990s, Williams achieved recognition for her role as Jen Lindley on the WB television teen drama Dawson's Creek, which she played from 1998 to 2003...
' performance, being impressed by her ability to convincingly play completely different kinds of roles: "Wendy and Lucy
Wendy and Lucy
Wendy and Lucy is a 2008 American drama film directed by Kelly Reichardt. Reichardt and Jon Raymond adapted the screenplay from his short story "Train Choir". The film stars Michelle Williams and Will Patton...
was so effective as establishing her as a helpless innocent that it's sort of a shock to see her here as a cool, competent ER surgeon." Eventually he summarised: "Mammoth is a perfectly decent film. Too bad it isn't more thoughtful. It's easy to regret misfortune if all you do is regret it."
External links
- Mammoth at Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
- The Swedish Film Institute
- News article regarding the casting of the film
- Row Three's Mammoth Conversation