‘Mute’ Review: The Highly Anticipated Netflix Sci-Fi Film…

Mute

At long last, Duncan Jones’ highly-anticipated Mute has arrived. The Moon and Source Code filmmaker has struggled to bring his dream project to the screen for over 12 years now, and the good folks at Netflix were nice enough to help make that dream a reality.

When it came to making top quality films, Netflix’s batting average when it comes to original movies has been embarrassingly low.

Still, there was reason to think that things might turn around with the company’s latest production, Mute. After all, it was directed by Duncan Jones, the promising talent behind 2009’s sci-fi headtrip Moon.

Let’s get one thing straight…

Mute is another film in the recent Blade Runner revival trend that seems to be booming in sci-fi. Mute has more in style with the recent film and heavily inspired by the 1982 Ridley Scott film, with a bleak, beautiful tone poem (that audiences mostly avoided).

While another of Netflix’s TV series Altered Carbon created a trippy science fiction series that seemed to be set within the same neon-lit, constantly-raining Blade Runner universe with a slice of (Luc Besson’s) The Fifth Element thrown in as a side-order.

The filmmaker released the one-two-punch of Moon and Source Code, two of the best science fiction films in recent memory. He stumbled magnificently with Warcraft, a clunky adaptation of the popular game series. Warcraft was the biggest (expensive) film Jones had made to date, and there was hope a return to a smaller sci-fi story like Mute would rekindle his cinematic magic.

Surprisingly, the film brings it all home like a wrapped present, with another gorgeous-but-bleak future-scape.

I’m sure Duncan Jones sat down and made sure the to-do checklist was correct before departure: Neon lights buzz, tick.

Streets are constantly wet, tick.

Tech is used in soul-crushing ways, tick.

The future is even more depressing than the present, tick.

Jones’ skill with cinematic language cannot be denied. He fills every inch of every frame with riveting, hypnotic detail.

The world of Mute feels alive, and more than that, it feels lived-in and is humming with life. There are wide-open shots of the Berlin skyline cluttered with glimmering, shimmering neon-lit structures, and every single one looks real.

Mute has two very distinctive stories. Both take up almost the same amount of time, yet neither manages to hold one’s interest.

One story focuses on tall, imposing, and yes, mute, Leo (Alexander Skarsgård). Leo is a bartender somewhere in futuristic Berlin, and he spends his days doting on his girlfriend Naadirah (Seyneb Saleh). An accident in his youth has left Leo without a voice, but he still manages to be expressive, thanks to Skarsgård’s impressive performance and his notebook.

The actor lurches through the film, his shoulders slumped, his eyes weary. This is a performance that relies on posture and long, somber looks, and Skarsgård is good in the part.

Leo’s world turns upside down when Naadirah vanishes. Her disappearance transforms Leo into something of an amateur detective, and he stalks through the crowded streets on a mission to find his lost love. That mission takes him down dark alleys and into seedy locales, and often results in him providing a brutal beating or two. Leo is a bruiser, more muscle than brain, and while it’s easy to find empathy with him, it’s not as easy to be as engrossed in his mission.

The other main storyline focuses on two wise-cracking, morally dubious ex-Army surgeons – Cactus Bill (Paul Rudd) and Duck (Justin Theroux). And these two ‘individuals’ Jones is most interested in.

Cactus Bill and Duck are monsters. They run what’s essentially a torture and murder operation out of their basement, (while Cactus Bill is AWOL from the US army), and they’re both borderline sociopathic.

Of the two, Rudd’s Cactus Bill is more sympathetic, mostly because he’s devoted to his young daughter. On the other hand, Theroux’s Duck is more duplicitous, and also more vile – a fact the film slowly reveals, with queasy results.

In anyone else’s hands, these two characters would be repellent to the extreme. But Jones was wise enough to cast the inherently likable Rudd and Theroux in the roles, which makes the characters much easier to stomach.

Rudd and Theroux are naturally charming, and both actors have chemistry together. As a result, it’s hard not to enjoy watching these two, despite all the awful shit they do.

In Mute, we have a wonderful, dangerous, trippy combination trip through two distinct storylines that have almost nothing to do with each other – save for the fact that they inhabit the same world, and just the one connection.

Slowly, the storylines do come together, but never in a convincing or satisfying way. The end result is a frustrating film – one loaded with potential, but lacking distinction.

The film is, so unapologetically nasty, that you almost have to respect it…but that doesn’t mean you have to enjoy it. Buried beneath the gritty, grimy story are some fine elements.

Jones’ direction is consistently impressive. He is a wonderful filmmaker. He’s able to lay out glorious imagery, and he’s able to create memorable, distinct characters.

The soundtrack is divine.

The performances are stellar, particularly Rudd, playing perhaps the most despicable character in his entire career. (He also gets to show off a glorious mustache.) The way Rudd balances his character’s terrible elements with his more empathetic moments is a treat to watch…

The one thing Mute has going for it is Jones’ vividly imaginative sense of world-building. Like Ridley Scott with Blade Runner, he fills every corner of the screen with something cool to look at.

And the fact that the director, who happens to be the son of David Bowie, decided to set the film in a future-shock Berlin (where Bowie lived while recording his most seminal albums in the late ‘70s) no doubt has a personal resonance for him so soon after his father’s death.

But there’s something about the film that doesn’t work. Maybe it’s the two alternative storylines thrown together. There’s no doubting this is a passion project for Jones, and I’m thrilled he was able to finally get it made.

Culturedemandsgeeks suspects that the only audience the film will receive will be for their hardened edges, offbeat characters, and future-cool atmospheres. So jump on board if you love em’ and if you don’t, well, I hope Duncan Jones next film will be the one for you.

Film Rating: 8 out of 10