Presumably starting off as a political satire, but then eventually pivoting into a very dry and unfunny comedy, the filmmaker trio of Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson latest outing Rumours is an odd dark comedy, but the humor ends up becoming bland, and it can’t decide if it wants to be a political satire or a horror comedy, and it just feels like an odd mishmash of different genres, approaches, and humor. An anthology film set in the same world might have done better.
World leaders meet at the G7 summit, and they all come from the largest democracies, but they somehow get lost in the woods as they collaborate on their joint statement during an ambiguous world crisis. As they get lost in the woods, the mist gets heavier, and suddenly dead ghouls and giant brains appear as they attempt to make it out of the woods alive.
The film focuses on Hilda Ortmann (Cate Blanchett), the Chancellor of Germany, who has a strong kinship with other fellow leaders, including a secretly romantic one, Maxime Laplace (Roy Dupuis), the Prime Minister of Canada, who holds a lot of resentment and longing over Cardosa Dewindt (Nikki Amuka-Bird)), the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, who has now distanced herself after an obvious affair they had together. Meanwhile, Hilda tries to win Maxime over, but the yearning is far too gone. The other leaders include Sylvain Boulez (Denis Menochet), the president of France; Edison Walcott (Charles Dance), the President of the United States with a sane temperament (how we miss that!); Antonio Lamorte, the Prime Minister of Italy (Rolando Ravello); and Takehiro Hira plays Tatsuro Iwasaki, the Prime Minister of Japan, in a very minor role.
Courtesy Bleeker Street
The film’s first half where it focuses on the character build ups where he we hear some respectful discourse between, they leaders, they all believe in a democracy and its mostly all set in the woods; it seems to want to be a Monty Python skit with shades of Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, The Death of Stalin). However, when it attempts at dark comedy and horror, it falls flat and really doesn’t serve a purpose other than for the world leaders to be mocked at their own-self-interests. The subtext is there, but it comes off slight and the satire feels streamlined.
The film’s first half, where it focuses on the character buildups, where we hear some respectful discourse between the leaders; they all believe in a democracy, and it’s mostly all set in the woods; it seems to want to be a Monty Python skit with shades of Armando Iannucci (In the Loop, The Death of Stalin). However, when it attempts at dark comedy and horror, it falls flat and really doesn’t serve a purpose other than for the world leaders to be mocked at their own self-interests. The subtext is slight there, but it comes off as low hanging fruit, and the satire feels streamlined.
The characters seem like they would be better served on a SNL or Comedy Central skit, and it doesn’t really add up to anything satisfying with very few payoffs with an ending that falls short. The ghouls and brain feel like they belong in a different film, and the tonal shifts are all over the place. Occasionally the film dives into some political commentary, and right when you think it has something to stay about the threats our current geopolitical environment faces with climate change, the rise of fascism, the threats of undemocratic nations, and how neo-liberalism enables a dysfunctional society and discourse, the film ventures off into something more lethargic and far duller than you would anticipate.
The movie spends a lot of its time lampooning the absurdity of bureaucratic drivel. Each character is well-spoken but self-serving, loving and narcissistic, and for democracy as they don’t really have a spine. But the film loses focus once Guy Maddin and fellow filmmakers use the ancient burial ground as a plot mechanism, and it never satisfies on a comedic or satirical level. The film builds up a very promising first half, only to derail into monotony. With such a great cast and talent, it’s hard to believe just how mildly amusing and unsatisfying Rumours is.
RUMOURS is now playing in limited theaters
Amen. Couldn’t have said it better myself. Felt long it was built on one good joke and instead of making a short film for that long they made it into an entire film.
I heard a lot of people say the same thing about this film out here in LA great review I’ll check this out just to see what the reaction is from myself
I’ll see it at some point, but I’ve long said that political satire is dead in our current era. This is a sad review to see.
Dark comedy is so hard to do well. I can only think of one good black comedy off the top of my head: Grosse Pointe Blank.
Not as bad as the usual dreck that Guy Maddin puts out, but still low grade attempt at either satire or comedy
2.5 of 4 stars