Animals Movie Review:
An age-old trope in cinema is the juxtaposition of humans in survival mode, to remind us about the power of choices, and our inner animalistic nature. This trope is limitless due to the unique nature in which each of us might have a unique approach to deal with crisis. In stories with heightened emotions, the thrill doesn’t reside in the emotions themselves, rather the circumstances that elevate them. Set over a night, Ben Affleck’s Animals is a character study of various humans on multiple sides of a kidnapping. But instead of a wild story that takes you for a ride, we get a domesticated tale, which makes you walk.
Director: Ben Affleck
Cast: Ben Affleck, Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun
Animals has two main elements: the thriller element, and the political element. In the film, Los Angeles mayoral candidate Mark Kimball is asked to pay up an exorbitant ransom to protect hus identity. As the story unravels, we realise the core is actually empty. Also, Mark, as we realise, is near invincible. He is so invincible that beyond all mistakes he makes, including lying to his wife, he ends up alright without the smallest of scratches. No matter what choice he makes, it ends up being a perfect solution, rather than a human solution. In a human solution, someone or something is at a loss. The lack of this humanity, lets down the thrill of the film.
On the other side Affleck has packed this film with multiple socio-political issues like immigrant rights, racism, classism, the impact of the court of public opinion, sexual harassment, and more. While they are all interconnected, they see. largely disconnected from the story. In the film, Mark also has to secure his image among Latino voters, while keeping the safety of his Latino maid’s family. But Mark’s invincibility strikes again.
Gillian Anderson’s Dayle Burton is a mysterious figure who helps Mark mitigate the kidnapping. In reality, Dayle becomes the stock character that helps close the loopholes within the plot. Beneath Dayle’s prosaic dialogues that tries to justify her directions to Mark, is the flimsy nature of the plot. With a character that can almost say or do no wrong, we do not feel the threat of public shame that holds Mark hostage. As a result, the socio-political issues end up becoming negligible.
Fortunately, the part of Animals that keeps it engaging are the humans. The cast of the film mete out engaging performances, which comes from realising their characters completely. Kerry Washington as Abigail, moves through the motions of a mother in agony and a wife in trouble with such ease. Washington’s timeliness in executing the smallest of eye movements, and shrugs, to shifting body language that indicates care, disgust, or shock is executed with finesse, without the help of any dialogues. Luis Gerardo Mendez is also commendable as Ramon, an undocumented immigrant in the US, who is directly impacted by the kidnapping.
In heightened situations it is not in human nature to be safe or stable. The film explores this tenet of survival itself. But in aiming for a tight thriller, the sacrifice becomes the inquisitiveness and the thrill of the film. The villain is a nameless, faceless villain who arose because of Mark’s views against minorities. But even his motives are without form, making his threats weightless. Without a real threat, the mirror that needs to hold up the juxtaposed image becomes non-existent. Not only does Animals fail to explore that beast-like nature, it fails the characters in not letting them be humans. In the end it becomes a tepid and passable tale.
