Merely illustrative image
Leaving my procrastinative spirit behind, I decided to continue my texts series that intend to help me improve my english skills. Today I'll be talking about the movie The Last Great Snail Chase, which I watched yesterday (April 5th). First, I'll write some summaries about the main characters and their conflicts, along with their development throughout the movie, and then, I'll write my overall opinion about the movie.You can watch it HERE if you will.
Note 1: This will surely contain SPOILERS. If you intend to watch the movie, please, read no further.
Note 2: What I'm going to write below is purely based on my opinion. It's completely fine if you disagree, hence there's no reason for you to bash me or bully me to death. Thank you.
The Last Great Snail Chase is a new zealander movie written and directed by Edward Lynden-Bell released in 2007. “I felt there was little point making my first film a standard one
since, even if successful, it would sit on the DVD rental shelves along
with a thousand others like it. If my film was to end up on video store
shelves, I wanted it to be a film that friends would say “have you seen
that fucking weird film?” I think I’ve succeeded!” he said (and I gotta tell you, he definetly did). It basically tells the story of teenagers/young adults and their daily life conflicts and issues. Here they are:
This is Alice (played by Jocelyn Christian). She is the wise, sensible woman among the characters. Since her mother has got a cancer, she attempts to play that role to her sister, Petulia, though they don't seem to get on well. Her dream is to travel all over the world, therefore, she keeps on finding excuses not to do so. I have to say, I unfortunately can relate a lot to her.
This is Julian (Timb Wilton). He is Alice's boyfriend, but unlike her, he despises working and seems to have little to zero perspective in life. This eventually makes her break up with him after he spent a whole day sleeping in bed. He's also the lead singer of a rock band, and trades his soul with a guy called "the devil's cousin" for a cigarrette, making him lose his shadow. As soon as he realizes he lost his shadow (it takes a long time actually), he takes it back by trading a cigarrette with the devil's cousin.
This one is Petulia (Rakaia Rose). She is Alice's sister with whom she can't get on well. She fell apart after her mom's disease and refuses to go to school or do any other activity, getting her sister into a state. The only person she seems to cope with is her mother, though she also befriends Julian's shadow (lol).
This is Josie (Sally Martin), a naive, shy, daydreamer who enjoys drawing and writing. She fancies her workmate, Daniel (Michael Wesley Smith) but struggles to tell him her feelings. She eventually ends up being fired because she's constantly drawing rather than working. Her friend Zoe (Abby Marment) prevails on her to take revenge on her former company. While trespassing the office, they almost get caught by Daniel, but she inadvertently asks him not on a date as an excuse. They end up kissing each other.
This is canadian singer Shiloh
And this is Zoe (Abby Marment). I think they look alike A LOT. Anyways, Zoe, is a rebellious, strong, stylish woman who, after stealing a camera, starts producing videos heavily critizing capitalism. In one of them, she supports shoplifting, arguing it's nothing more than a fair trade, considering everything she already pays for (I totally agree with her, though I don't steal). The other consists in strategies to boycott elections in order to disrupt the current regime.
And finally, this is Greg (Brad McCormick). He is Zoe's best friend (and I believe they sort of fancy each other, maybe because they share similar points of view). He works on a bookstall and heavily criticizes USA's imperialism. He latter makes a bomb and tries to destroy a building that would contain the Treaty of Waitangi, but Zoe (Abby Marment) managed to stop him, claiming violence was not the way.
So, now that I talked about the characters, I will give my opinion about the movie. Well, to be honest, the characters are undoubtfully interesting and they would definetly catch my eye BUT, I think the movie's development is really poor. Basically, nothing happens, making the characters seem flat and underdeveloped. Actually, the most remarkable thing about the movie is Sally's beautifuly odd voice, she would definetly be an amazing singer (or at least in the "unique voice" topic). I also really like this quote wrote down on the sidewalk:
The movie kept me wondering if this was the actual purpouse: show that even when pressed against the end of the world (this is something I like as well, unlike recent movies which portray the end of the world as a big chaos (note that this movie was released in 2007, and the whole hype about the end of the world started around 2011) this one seems to show another point of view), people keep on doing their stuff like turtles were not swimming over the sky, or acting like they didn't care at all (argument which is strengthened by the movie's taglines: In a world where whales walk the earth, you still gotta go to work).
Alice overflowing with joy while working
Still, I think a short film would suit the idea way better and not make it so tiring.
My grade: 2,5/5. Actually thinking about switching to 3.
