The original title of The Animal Kingdom is Le Règne Animal, because it’s a French movie. That’s why you most likely haven’t heard of it and also probably why it isn’t the global phenomenon it should be.
First, let’s be clear that it’s nothing to do with Animal Kingdom, David Michôd’s superbly gnarly Australian crime drama from 2010, or its US TV spin-off, or the metaphysical experimental Irish movie of the same name.
The Animal Kingdom is a beast of an entirely different colour, one that’s watched an awful lot of Steven Spielberg movies. Director Thomas Cailley borrows the mood, structures and tropes of Spielberg in playful, corny ET mode to tell the story of a family riven by diversity issues – mum has turned into an animal, as have whole tranches of humanity, thanks to some never-specified affliction sweeping the planet.
Roman Duris plays dad François and Paul Kircher is Émile, the son of the unfortunate woman, who together relocate out of the city so they can be near the facility where Lana (a barely glimpsed and in any case unrecognisable Florence Deretz) has been taken, the better to take care of her, the authorities say. Or put another way, to shut her away with all the other “monsters”, “creeps” and “creatures”, as the unfortunates are often described.
But a freak crash of a transport ambulance means that Lana doesn’t make it to the facility. Instead she might be dead at the bottom of a lake, or maybe running free in the surrounding forest, where other human/animal crossovers also tend to congregate.
The crash brings François into contact with tender, hot local cop Julia (Adèle Exarchopoulos) at roughly the same time as Émile is getting to know the outspoken, hot Nina (Billie Blain), a student with ADHD at his new school.
Will François and Julia get it on? Will Émile and Nina? If you’ve seen Thomas Cailley’s previous film, his debut Love at First Fight, you’ll know how good he is at just-kiss-her tantalisation, so let’s leave that for him to reveal. Cailley’s two other stories are Émile getting to win the confidence of an injured half-bird-man (Tom Mercier) in the woods, while at the same time coming to terms with new developments of his own. I’ll say no more.
It is all, of course, a massive metaphor… but for what? Societies coming to terms with change. Or maybe it’s an allegory about growing up. Or a plea for animal rights, along with an almost tokenistic “and feminism” tacked on in the case of Julia, the cop who’s expected to do domestic duties as well as police work. But if all that sounds like a lot, somehow Cailley doesn’t overload his parable, or if he does his superstructure is strong enough, cute enough, funny enough, thrilling enough and twisty enough to take the strain, no matter how many subtexts it’s carrying.
Great cast. Duris as a “dad joke” sort of dad, hectoring, cajoling and pranking his son towards the desired goal. Exarchopoulos smouldering away as the cop always just a touch too close to François. Kircher is the star: handsome, vulnerable, plausible as both a troubled and a wanky teenager.
As in ET, which it resembles to quite an extent – especially out in the forest where Émile and half-bird-man Fix are getting to know each other – it’s a very benign view of diversity. Conflict free. Who couldn’t help but love these poor misunderstood creatures? As for those who don’t love them, Cailley suggests they’re only lacking the pitchforks and flaming torches to resemble another uncomprehending, mistaken rabble.
It’s the sort of movie most Hollywood movies aspire to be – every shot is technically perfect, every interaction has been finessed to reveal something about the people involved or to move the action along. It is excellently crafted, as a piece of writing (Cailley rewrote Pauline Munier’s original story with her) and as a cinematic finished product – strong cinematography (David Cailley, Thomas’s brother), dynamic music (Andrea Laszlo De Simone), smart editing (Lilian Corbeille).
A Saturday night movie that’s more thoughtful than most. Serve with a vegan buffet.
The Animal Kingdom – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
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© Steve Morrissey 2024
