hunter albert

Stuck in a traffic jam, Francois and his son Emile make conversation with a fellow driver. A nearby ambulance jolts from side to side as a struggle inside occurs. The three men look on silently. Suddenly the doors fling wide open and a man flies out and smashes a nearby car. The man is anything but normal: feathers fan out from his arms, showing his partially developed wings. This is a person who is the process of metamorphosis from human to a bird. The world is the middle of a pandemic in which people are slowly mutating into animals.

There is no shortage of movies and television shows that showcase our world marred by either a pandemic, nuclear fallout, kaiju monsters, alien invasions, or natural disasters. Answering how the world got to that point in the first place is one of the strongest mysteries a film can place upon the viewer. How did the deadly virus in Contagion begin? Where exactly did the aliens in War of the Worlds come from? What caused the apocalypse in The Road? More importantly, how do any of us respond in those situations? French film The Animal Kingdom differs in that it doesn’t attempt to answer any of those questions. Itt does not attempt to answer the how or why of what’s happening. We don’t know how many people are affected by this disease or how it started. There is no attempt by the characters to find a cure.

Francois has slowly lost his wife to animal mutation. Officials are forcing him and Emile to relocate to the south of France to be near a compound where his wife will be housed with other mutated humans. The transport carrying his wife wrecks before reaching the compound and all the mutated humans escape. Without knowing where she has run off or if she has even survived at all, it throws Francois into a state of panic. To add insult to injury, Emile makes a startling discovery: he’s slowly mutating into a wolf.

This is a story about loss and letting go. The movie really leaves it up to the viewer on their interpretation of what the mutations represent. People change. You can the view Francois losing his wife as divorce, cancer, or a lost battle with mental health. The loss of his son turning into a wolf can be interpreted as growing up and leaving home. Or again, maybe inheriting his own moms mental struggles. That’s the area that I find myself landing in, but the movie is hardly declarative.

And that’s where The Animal Kingdom will either resonate or not with people.

It doesn’t always pull its weight when it comes to social themes. Mutated animals are referred to as critters and are painted as less than human and therefore have less rights and protections. But beyond the surface level introduction of these themes, the movie never really examines them deeply. Anti-mutation graffiti lines the outer wall of a compound that houses these monsters. People at work, school, or community events speak of their distaste of these people. Instead of really diving into people’s perception, it more lands more in the camp of people being resistant to change. I think there was potential for the movie to explore social themes more.

For a movie concept, it’s an incredibly unique one–even if it’s execution isn’t always on target. The CGI in still moments looks great, but at times during motion (whether a person walking or flying) it does look a little cheap. It’s jarring to say the least. I really loved a couple of the scenes towards the end, so much so that they can possibly end up as some of my favorite of the year. The Animal Kingdom does not always live up to its own lofty ambitions, even if it does end up being one of the years most unique movies.

★★★½