Plot
While on a trip to Thailand, a successful American businessman tries to radically change his life. Back in New York, his wife and daughter find their relationship with their live-in Filipino maid changing around them. At the same time, in the Philippines, the maid's family struggles to deal with her absence.
Release Year: 2009
Rating: 6.8/10 (4,792 voted)
Critic's Score: 51/100
Director:
Lukas Moodysson
Stars: Gael García Bernal, Michelle Williams, Marife Necesito
Storyline n New York, the immature family man Leo Vidales is a successful businessman, owner of the Underlandish, a successful website of digital games and married to Dr. Ellen Vidales, a dedicated surgeon of the emergency room of a hospital. They have a daughter, Jackie, who is an intelligent girl that is raised by her nanny, the Filipino Gloria that spends more time with her than Ellen. Gloria has two sons in Philippine that miss her. When Leo need to travel to Singapore with his partner Bob (Tom McCarthy) to sign a millionaire contract with investors, Ellen operates on a boy stabbed in the stomach by his own mother and she feels connected to the boy and rethinks her relationship with Jackie. Meanwhile Leo is bored waiting for the negotiation of Bob with the investors and he decides to travel to Bangkok and lodges in a rustic cottage on the seashore. Leo meets the young prostitute and mother Cookie and he has one night stand with her...
Cast: Gael García Bernal
-
Leo Vidales
Michelle Williams
-
Ellen Vidales
Marife Necesito
-
Gloria
Sophie Nyweide
-
Jackie Vidales
Thomas McCarthy
-
Bob
(as Tom McCarthy)
Natthamonkarn Srinikornchot
-
Cookie
(as Run Srinikornchot)
Jan David G. Nicdao
-
Salvador
Martin de los Santos
-
Manuel
Chiqui del Carmen
-
Grandmother
(as Maria Esmeralda del Carmen)
Perry Dizon
-
Uncle Fernando
Elmira Arikan
-
Trauma Team
Doña Croll
-
Alice
Deborah Fronko
-
Patient
Bryan 'Buck' Glinski
-
Paramedic
(as Bryan Glinski)
David Hagman
-
Paramedic
Release Date: 23 January 2009
Filming Locations: Koh Lanta, Krabi, Thailand
Box Office Details
Budget: $10,000,000
(estimated)
Gross: $8,530
(USA)
(29 November 2009)
Technical Specs
Runtime:
USA:
User Review
Captivating critique of the global condition
Rating: 8/10
Mammoth is an ambitious, highly contemplative take on the implications
of global capitalism for individuals, families and communities.
Moodysson illustrates a world in which market economy as the Western
way of life both encourages and obliges human action that, irrespective
of one's intentions, reproduces unequal social relations and reinforces
existing power structures.
One could criticize Moodysson of presenting only conservative, private
solutions for the social problems caused by globalization. The
protagonists do not try to face their social circumstance head on or to
find political ways for addressing their situation. In stead of seeking
social change through collective action, family becomes of central
importance. Only some vague escapist dreams are left for the
disillusioned workers at both ends of the global working class.
Despite the film's fatalism, Moodysson succeeds beautifully in
constructing a convincing and authentic interpretation of the 21st
century social reality of global interconnectedness. The tragedy of
highly educated Western professionals that Mammoth portrays lies in the
fact that they are conscious of the disastrous social and ecological
consequences of their actions, yet find themselves completely unable to
transform the social condition.
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