'Mammoth' review

Michelle Williams and Gael Garcia Bernal (Credit: Memfis Film/P-A Jörgensen)

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Video game designer Leo (Gael García Bernal) and his ER surgeon wife Ellen (Michelle Williams) live in New York with their 8 year-old daughter Jackie (Sophie Nyweide), who is cared for by Filipino nanny Gloria (Marife Necesito). When Leo leaves for a business trip to Asia, Ellen encounters a particularly bad case at work and realizes that the bond between Jackie and Gloria is stronger than she thought. Meanwhile, Gloria desperately misses the two sons (Jan Nicdao and Martin Delos Santos) she left behind in the Philippines and Leo experiences culture shock in Thailand, feeling especially drawn to sweet prostitute Cookie (Run Srinikornchot).

The buzz: Swedish director Lukas Moodysson makes his English-language debut after building a solid reputation with “Show Me Love,” “Together” and “Lilya 4-Ever.” But “Mammoth” premiered to bad buzz, including vocal boos from some audience members, at this year’s Berlin film festival. It also happens to be the film Williams was shooting when news broke of her ex-partner Heath Ledger’s death, making some of her character’s more emotionally tortured scenes especially painful to watch.

The verdict: Moodysson enters “Babel”-esque territory in this human drama of globalization, but “Mammoth” also works as a minor corrective to that Oscar nominee’s overwrought approach. “Mammoth” is less obsessed with coincidence and more interested in the ways people from various cultures connect, or don’t quite connect, in everyday situations. Moodysson isn’t always subtle (the electro-pop of Ladytron blares on the soundtrack, giving the deliberately paced film periodic bursts of energy, even as the lyrics to their “Destroy Everything You Touch” seem to be used a little too directly) but he elicits strong work from the actors and fills the movie with nicely observed details—his portrayal of life in the Philippines feels especially vivid. Any filmmaker who attempts a drama with this kind of scope and philosophical contemplation risks looking pretentious or foolish, but the finer points make “Mammoth” worthwhile.

Did you know? Thomas McCarthy, who plays Leo’s business savvy colleague, has kept up an active acting career despite his success behind the camera with “The Station Agent” and “The Visitor.” This year alone he appears in “Duplicity,” “2012” and “The Lovely Bones.”

[“Mammoth” is also available through “IFC In Theaters,” a video on demand service from select cable providers.]

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