Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Sameer Callahan It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

hughman55 This movie attempts to comment on the sorry state of parenting today. Unfortunately the characters are written and delivered in a ridiculously unbelievable way. I didn't buy one minute of it. The story is about how parents abandon their own children for ostensibly good reasons, but the results are always bad. There's a husband and wife who are high powered professionals. They have delegated their parenting to a Phillipino nanny. The nanny has abandoned her children to come to the U.S. so that she can send money back to the Filipines to pay for a cement house she's having built. This IS a story worth telling. Unfortunately these characters are presented in a TOTALLY unbelievable way. Mostly this flaw manifests itself through Michelle Williams and the Spanish guy from "E Tu Mama Tambien" who plays her husband. I don't think they give "bad" performances. I think they gave the wrong performances, for this story, and this film. And that, I will lay at the feet of the director, whoever he or she is. I could care less to look it up right now. It takes a lot to take the time to write a bad review for a bad movie after you've just wasted 2 hours of your life that you'll never get back. But if one person reads this two minute review and decides not to watch this movie, I'll consider my time well spent. The last thing I'll say is that this film could have been salvaged with a complete re-write from the scene at the dump through to the ending. They wouldn't have had to change the ending. Just everything in between those two points. Instead it just nose dived from there to the last frame. Don't waste your time.

birck I notice that many of the positive reviews for this film are from Scandinavia. I'm not, and I ran into some real holes in the story. The subject of the film is parents and children, and what happens when the two are separated by necessity. The film opens in New York, where Leo, the main character, has become fabulously wealthy, and loves his kid, but must fly off to Bangkok to seal a deal that will make him even wealthier. His story is the skeleton of the movie,but it's also the weakest and least convincing. Two other stories (or four) complete the film, showing us family separations-by-necessity that are more convincing. I for one found the story of the Filipino nanny much more watchable and believable. The Philippines produces too many intelligent, well-educated people for its economy to support, so roughly 15% of the adult workforce are forced to leave the country to work overseas; Gloria, the nanny, is one of them, and she has to leave her children in Olangapo while she sends money back from New York. I knew about that situation going in, but the film does a nice job of dramatizing it. meanwhile, the main story, starring Gael Bernal as the wealthy-but-tortured New Yorker, just doesn't work, partly because it's either poorly-written or not written at all. Bernal is a good actor, but here he sounds as if he's been asked to improvise his own dialogue, and it sounds just like improvised movie dialogue from other badly-improvised movies: boring, flat, and very, very, very repetitious. Improvisation can be done right, and when it is, it works beautifully, as in Happy-Go-Lucky and The Class, but not here. Whether it's improvised or not, Leo's part of the film is one long boring cliché. There are some other little glitches in the film that strain credulity, but overall I'll ignore the Leo section and give it a 6 out of 10.

Raymond I was looking forward to seeing Mammoth because Moodysson seems to be one of the most interesting directors at the moment. I've yet to see Container and will probably pass Hole in My Heart for good, but all the other movies have deeply moved me.While Moodyssons other movies feel genuine and sincere, Mammoth felt a bit forced and clichéd. It was strangely detached from all characters and during the movie I was thinking if this is a conscious choice or not, as in his other movies you really feel like you are there and feel the characters every emotion. With Mammoth, I was left more as an observer.Moodysson also seems to be a bit out of his character with the huge global setting. Altho the set, locations and cinematography are top notch, especially the New York scenario and the family just don't seem believable. I had really hard time connecting to anything or anyone.I have to admit I've always thought both Williams and especially Bernal keep a bit of a distance from their characters. Williams delivers once in a while, but Bernal just feels like his not really acting a character, but rather just being himself. Or maybe he just acts the same role in all the movies I've seen from him.There is a bit of an Oscar vibe here too like there was with Babel and Crash, and it feels intentional. Everythings a bit too underlined and spoon fed. Many events are easily foreseen before they happen, and you're left with very few surprises. Most of the events go as awry as they can, and it gets a bit heavy with more then two hours of it.Not a bad movie, but too preachy and pretentious.

gradyharp MAMMOTH is a sensitively written and directed film by Lukas Moodysson that adroitly traces three stories that all intertwine within the confines of one family. It touches on many aspects of human relationships but the one driving force behind each of the several stories that are woven in this film is the importance of family. It is a profoundly moving film beautifully brought to life by a fine cast of actors. Leo Vidales (Gael García Bernal in yet another role that proves he is one of the finest actors on the screen today, despite his young age) is a highly successful designer of video games, married to Ellen (Michelle Williams), a committed Physician and Surgeon, and parent to a vibrant little girl Jackie (Sophie Nyweide) who is devoted to her Filipino nanny Gloria (Marife Necesito) who is living with the Vidales to make money to send home to her treasured young sons Manuel (Martin Delos Santos) and Salvador (Jan David G. Nicdao) living in the Philippines with their grandmother (Maria Esmeralda del Carmen). Leo's family unit is warm and secure (the only minor crack in the veneer is young Jackie's preference for spending time with the more available Gloria than with Ellen due to Ellen's long hours in the hospital). Leo is called to Thailand on a business trip to sell his ideas to Thai entrepreneurs and while there his business partner (Thomas McCarthy) suggests that he partake of the feminine charms readily available in this country. Leo is faithful and declines advances from call girls but eventually gives in to a beautiful young Cookie (Natthamonkarn Srinikornchot) only to be driven by remorse to make a quick sell of his product to return to his family. Meanwhile at home Ellen is devastated by the death of one of her young patients and in her distress she must allow Gloria to return to the Philippines whose one son has been severely beaten in his attempt to gain more money for his family so that his mother needn't work in the USA. How the results of all these traumas resolve forms the touching ending of this moving story. While each of the actors mentioned is superb, Gael García Bernal shines in a very subtle role as does Michelle Williams who manages to make Ellen credible without becoming saccharine. Yes, if the story sounds a bit like another film in the style of Alejandro González Iñárritu ('Babel') or Paul Haggis ('Crash'), then that is a fine comparison as this film is in many ways a more intimate version of that kind of storytelling. Highly recommended. Grady Harp