The Congress

 

The Congress 2013

• Director: Ari Folman
• Also seen by this director: Waltz with Bashir
• Based on a book by Stanislaw Lem
• Cast: Robin Wright, Harvey Keitel, Sami Gayle, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Danny Huston, Paul Giamatti, John Hamm (voice only)
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Robin Wright – Blade Runner 2049, Wonder Woman, The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, Breaking and Entering, White Oleander, The Pledge, How to Kill Your Neighbour’s Dog, Forrest Gump
• Harvey Keitel – Moonrise Kingdom, Be Cool, Lulu on the Bridge, Copland, Get Shorty, Clockers, Smoke, The Piano, Sister Act, Reservoir Dogs, Thelma and Louise, The January Man, The Last Temptation of Christ, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
• Sami Gayle – Detachment
• Kodi Smit-McPhee – X Men Apocalypse, The Road
• Danny Huston – Wonder Woman, Robin Hood, Children of Men, The Constant Gardener, The Aviator, 21 Grams
• Paul Giamatti – The Last Station, Sideways, Cradle Will Rock, Donnie Brasco  
• Why? Sci fi, sounded interesting
• Seen: 23 October 2020      

       Robin Wright (Wright) is a 44-year-old former washed up star actor, with neuroses, two children and a studio, Miramount, who is sick and tired of her failures and family crises. Her agent Al (Keitel) tells her that the studio is giving her one last chance. They want to scan her and own her entire image with which to do what they wish. She refuses but….

       It’s a good film up to that point but the second half, twenty years later when Robin is invited to a congress in which the venue and all the participants are animated, the film falls apart.

       It teeters back and forth between intelligent, intriguing, innovative, political, existential and weird (not in a good way), pretentious, self-indulgent and boring. And back again. Or all of it at once.

       I don’t know what to think. I really don’t. Somewhere between 1* and 5* so I guess that makes it

 

3* of 5 (Hal says 4-4½*.)