More often than not, films brimming with ideas feel cluttered and unfocused. Their confounding combinations of genres and themes clash like waves on a shore and end up leaving viewers more confused than comforted and engaged. Messy movies rarely overcome their narrative flaws, which is why “The Animal Kingdom” is such a shockingly effective film.
Against all odds, this genre hybrid sci-fi family drama smartly anchors itself by placing a touching father/son story at its core, one that works so well you’re able to forgive many of the missteps along the way. This film has a lot going on all at once, and not all of the ideas feel necessary or fleshed out. Some of the themes feels repetitive and it runs a good 15-20 minutes too long. But in the end, none of that seems to matter thanks to the entirety of it all resting on a timeless tale that eventually breaks down those hard exteriors and delivers an emotional gut punch that’s hard to forget.
Written and directed by Thomas Cailley (“Love at First Sight“) and co-written by Pauline Munier, “The Animal Kingdom” centers around François (Romain Duris) and his son Émile (Paul Kircher). The pair are trying to care for François’ wife, who is Èmile’s mother. The world is hit by a wave of a mysterious illness that transforms the affected into hybrid mutant animals, with the mutation essentially transforming the individual into more animal than human eventually. Medical advise is useless as no doctor understands the illness, and all of the admitted patients are transferred to a more remote location for research and testing. Of course, a road accident sets many of the effected animal mutants free into the vast forest of the country side. Francois and Émile set out to search for their mother, but as they grow more and more desperate to find her, Émile begins exhibiting animalistic transformations of his own, putting a strain both on the search for their loved one as well as the nature of their relationship and place in the world. The film also stars Adèle Exarchopoulos, Tom Mercier, and Billie Blain.
First and foremost, the special effects and makeup in “The Animal Kingdom” are excellent. Used sparingly and carefully, Cailley creates a tragic atmosphere of change and struggle without ever seeking to find answers to the questions the film poses. The slow transformations of Émile are believable and often times haunting, adding an element of body horror as his fingernails slowly turn to claws and fur begins to grow on his back. Mercier as Fix (a more advanced and rapidly advancing human bird Émile meets in the forest as he struggles to fly) is unsettling to look at and watch change from human to beast. Even as we root for him to fly and shed his humanity with the help of Émile, the body horror elements are enough to make David Cronenberg proud. Cailley exhibits great skill behind the camera, with each frame approached with confidence and vision. I’m a sucker for films that know how to work with what they have instead of bloating budgets for shoddy, fake, digital sheen shots, and “The Animal Kingdom” feels small in the best of ways.
Story-wise, there is a lot going on. Too much in fact, as it begins to try and tell a familial story, a story of othering, discrimination, change, and disease, a sci-fi story, and a coming of age story. “The Animal Kingdom” feels somehow overstuffed and undercooked, unable to truly deliver worthy conclusions to each of themes and subplots it wants to explore. It wants to serve as a commentary for the best and worst of humanity, framed within too many competing, overarching plot lines to really drive those messages home in the ways that should feel more effective instead of cliche.
You will always have me at Adèle Exarchopoulos, but her character as a policewoman in charge of investigating the missing creatures and returning them to the facility is not only wasted, but feels like an afterthought. There’s a sort of “will they, won’t they” romance between her and Francois, but it is never defined nor fleshed out enough to justify her existence in the first place. Yes, this is the first time I’ve ever said you don’t need Adèle Exarchopoulos in your film, and that’s a very bold statement coming from me because she makes absolutely everything better.
Though it stumbles to reconcile its ideas in a cohesive, focused narrative, “The Animal Kingdom” is elevated by the film’s true core and heart. That is, the father/son relationship between Francois and Émile. Duris and Kircher and excellent together, able to confidently weave in and out of their complicated dynamic of how they relate to each other under such strange circumstances. There is a vast distance between them at the start. The film brilliantly captures the way each of them process and experience these otherworldly events. And of course, it becomes even more complicated with Francois realizes he’s about to lose his son before he’s even able to comprehend the loss of his wife. The push and pull between them, the complex ways in which they desperately try to cling to the way things were while being forced to accept things the can’t understand as they are is what makes “The Animal Kingdom” shine, and have the only legitimate emotional payoff in the end.
Kircher is particularly stellar here, able to convey a vast array of emotions and horrors and change with smart choices as a performer. Slight head tilts, increased senses, and animal instincts that take over are all things Kircher manages to convey with relative ease. He is tasked here with a lot, particularly as a young and somewhat green feature film actor, and Kircher is up to the task. He stands his ground with the more experienced Duris and Exarchopoulos, and is really the crux of the film. It simply doesn’t work with a weaker performance in this role, and Kircher earns his Best Male Revelation nomination at the César Awards for his performance here. “The Animal Kingdom” is all Duris and Kircher, and though their story is the anchor, their performance is what truly brings it all together and carries it through to an emotional end.
“The Animal Kingdom” may not be the best of its kind, but for whatever it lacks in its narrative chaos it makes up for with a touching story about fatherly love, letting go, and discovering that things that seek to drive us apart may actually bring us together. It’s the theme and story this film nails- so you kind of forgive everything else it seems to falter on. It got me, I won’t lie. By the time these two finish their journey together, you’re left feeling cathartic, heartbroken and somehow hopeful.
And yes, “The Animal Kingdom” will make you want to hug your dad and tell your mom you love her. Not a bad message to end a film on, if you ask me. Also, I take it back. Every film is better with Adèle Exarchopoulos.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Stars
“The Animal Kingdom” is in select theaters March 15th. You can watch the trailer below.
