In
the future, the world will become a giant allegory. Nothing in this
claustrophobic dystopia performs a practical purpose, but serves a vision of
class warfare at its most extreme. At least it all looks cool when the train’s
tail-section revolts in Bong Joon-ho’s first English language production Snowpiercer (trailer here), which opens this
Friday in New York.
Seventeen
years ago, a climate control experiment went horribly wrong. Now that the Earth
is a frozen wasteland, the only surviving humans live in the protection of the
globe circling train providentially prepared by the mysterious Wilford. However,
instead of assigning productive tasks to each survivor, the Wilford express
maintains a rigid and baffling bizarre social caste system. The further up you
travel, the richer, crueler, and idler the passengers get. It’s all sushi and filet
mignon up front, but gelatinous protein bars for the proletarian in the
tail-section, who do not really appear to work either, but just sit around waiting
to be beaten by the guards (apparently the train’s only productive class).
Curtis
Everett has emerged as the leader of the proles in the back of the train,
whether he likes it or not. He is still haunted the things he did during his
darkest, most desperate hours, but old Gilliam provides encouragement and wise
counsel to the budding revolutionary. Everett is biding his time, waiting for a
cue from a source ensconced somewhere further up the train, but the arbitrary
ruthlessness of Minister Mason, a buck-toothed caricature of an elitist
exploiter, forces his hand. Freeing Nam-gung Min-su, the drug-addled Korean
security specialist who designed the train’s door locks, and his train-born
daughter Yo-na, Everett and his followers plan to fight their way to the engine
room. Stopping anywhere short of that will doom their revolt.
Frankly,
Snowpiercer is even less subtle than
it sounds. Tilda Swinton is a great screen thespian, but her portrayal of Mason
is embarrassingly cringey. She is also emblematic of the film’s fundamental
problem—this simply is not a believable world. People act mean and savage for
no logical reason accept to live up to a class-based stereotype. Nonetheless,
production designer Ondřej Nekvasil and art director Štefan Kováčik created a
distinctively detailed calling card that ought to earn them a gig on the next
Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton film.
If
you prefer your movie leads on the sullen side than you will probably be okay
with Chris Evans’ turn as Everett. He is a brooding machine, but looks respectable
during the well-staged action sequences. John Hurt’s Obiwan shtick also works
well enough for Gilliam the sage. However, the only real surprises found in the
film come from the characters of Nam-gung Min-su and Yo-na—as well as the
respective performances of Korean superstar Song Kang-ho and Ko Ah-sung, his juvenile
co-star in The Host. Viewers should
keep their eyes on this tandem, because together they nearly redeem all of Snowpiercer’s flaws.
