Shadows on the Wall

Mickey 17

dir-scr Bong Joon Ho
prd Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bong Joon Ho, Dooho Choi
with Robert Pattinson, Naomi Ackie, Mark Ruffalo, Toni Collette, Steven Yeun, Patsy Ferran, Anamaria Vartolomei, Cameron Britton, Holliday Grainger, Daniel Henshall, Michael Monroe, Ian Hanmore
release US/UK 7.Mar.25
25/UK Warners 2h17

BERLIN FILM FEST

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Striking a distinctive tone, Bong Joon Ho presents a sci-fi thriller as a comical adventure that's surprisingly warm and sweet. If you can adjust expectations to the film's rhythms, it's a thoroughly entertaining tale of a young man grappling with identity and mortality in ways that are outrageous and unusually thoughtful. So while the satire is broad, this strikingly well-made film is packed with humour and ideas that resonate.

In 2054, Mickey (Pattinson) and pal Timo (Yeun) join a mission to populate a distant planet, led by grandstanding politician Kenneth (Ruffalo) and his reptilian wife Ylfa (Collette). Mickey is the crew's "expendable", used for experimental purposes and reprinted if he dies. During the four-year voyage, Mickey falls for security officer Nasha (Ackie). Then on an icy planet, the 17th Mickey is left to be eaten by "creepers", the armadillo-like worms that populate this planet. But they actually return Mickey safely to the ship, where he runs into Mickey 18. Which is a big problem.

Because reprinting humans and reimplanting memories is open to abuse, there are strict regulations about "multiples", and the presence of two distinct Mickeys sets into motion a huge challenge to Kenneth's outrageously arrogant rule. Paranoid and entitled, he decides to purge the planet of creepers, while Ylfa works out ways to exploit them for her own purposes. But science officer Dorothy (Ferran) discovers the creepers' huge intelligence, and decodes their language. All of this leads to an almighty confrontation.

Through all of this, relationships drive the narrative. The two Mickeys are played with very distinct personalities by Pattinson, who has a lot of fun with the likeably naive 17 and the more shark-like 18, especially when both become jealous about Nasha, a strong character given bursts of intelligence, humour and tenacity by the terrific Ackie. Yeun also brings cool textures to the slippery Timo, while Ruffalo and Collette gleefully chew on the scenery as a loathsome couple trying to establish their own cult.

Amid the blackly comical nuttiness and goofy social parody, these two Mickeys raise some provocative issues, starting with how each is a distinct person, despite being printed from the same pattern. This raises complex ideas about mortality, as each Mickey realises his own agency, and perhaps his own soul. So questions about doing the right thing take on extra nuance, adding remarkably subtle commentary about whether we are motivated by what we can get out of the world, or what we can give to it.

themes, language, violence, sexuality 3.Mar.25

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