Mute (2018) | Netflix Original Film Review

So my wife and I recently had an addition to the family. That’s right, my wife brought home Clover, a bouncing girl puppy that instantly filled my crusty old heart with joy. Here’s the thing though, after so many years of having dogs in my house I had completely forgotten about the part where dog and owner learn to communicate. It’s been two months since this tiny psychopath has come into my home, and after some vigorous training and one on one time, she and I have developed a language. This little tangent gets me thinking, what do I do with Mute, a movie where the lead’s communication gets hamstrung by not allowing him to talk? Does the fact that he is a person and more or less the same species as I am (it’s Alexander Skarsgård, so that’s a bit like saying Buzz Lightyear and Mr. Potato Head are the same) make it easier for me to connect to him as a character? Or is it more like dealing with a dog, they both have eyebrows but when they move in certain directions it doesn’t always mean anything of significance.

Forty years in the future (in the same universe as director Duncan Jones’ Moon), Berlin is a beautiful rolling city of lights and immigrants. East and West crash together in wonderfully lit up and futuristic Casablanca. Leo Beiler (Skarsgard) is a mute Amish bartender – say that to yourself a few more times, it’ll sink in – who falls in love with a woman who becomes his only reason for living. She disappears, and Leo must fall deeper and deeper into a criminal underbelly, filled with dangerous and treacherous people, in order to find her. His only clues come in the form of two American doctors that keep turning up from time-to-time.

The production is where not a single misstep was made. It is a futuristic world on that screen in front of you that rivals Blade Runner (either of them), Judge Dredd (either of them) , Pacific Rim, or any other big-budget theatrically released film. It boggles the mind that this is on Netflix, but it is proof that the big screen no longer is the sole go-to place for shock and awe. The visuals in Mute are thoroughly thought out and feel completely plausible to the world we live in now. In a way, I felt like this movie should have felt more like A Sound of Thunder or Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, great effects for their time, but even then it was painfully obvious a green screen and a treadmill were being used. Mute didn’t feel like that, it felt robust and tangible.

The cast is something of a spectacle. Alexander Skarsgard’s run as Leo was manic. He’s a mute, which means no talking with his mouth, so let’s turn that face acting up to 11. We have sad puppy dog eyes, eyebrow flexing, and a man in peak physical form that everyone keeps calling stupid, simply because he is a mute. What’s disappointing is that he plays the character meek with outbursts of violence. In contrast, every character on the screen seems to be making up for the fact that he cannot speak by playing it big for the cheap seats.

Justin Theroux as Duck is wonderfully smarmy and gross. Seyneb Saleh as Naadirah is a great heart for the movie, but oversells us on why we should care about Leo. Paul Rudd was a wonderful surprise and a joy to behold. It’s Paul Rudd, right? He is going to play to type, right? The choices Rudd makes are brilliant, he takes the Rudd brand of character that he has played so many times before, and plays a few dimensions over from that. It’s like the Earth 4 version of himself where someone took his toys away. My time with this movie was worth it just to see Rudd pull this act off.

I poke fun at it but it’s a solid story. Like a lot of Jones’ work, it sets you up in a world, meanders around for a bit, only to start showing you that all that wandering aimlessly wasn’t as pointless as it felt. It’s joyful in a way. It’s as if he dares you to stop paying attention, just to show you that it was ultimately all worth it. Sure, there are some story elements to quibble about, but the most egregious is the Lord of the Rings ending. To say, you have a powerful movie ending moment, but instead of wrapping your film and letting everyone go their separate ways, you come out of that fade-to-black to tell a little more story. Did the story need it? Not really. Did it make the ending better? Sure, it was sweeter, but I would have personally enjoyed a few more questions at the end.

So here we are, the conclusion of my time with Mute. Maybe I should do a Return of the King ending myself and just hit return A LOT between short paragraphs, you’ll think it’s done, but keep scrolling and find out there is so much more! No, I think I’ll do the Wayne and Garth ending.

Duncan Jones’ movies for me have landed three ways. 1) Loved it! 2) That was interesting. 3) That was better than I thought.

Going into Mute, hearing the whispers of discontent and with ratings on “those” sites being abysmal, I expected a dumpster fire of a movie. Instead I was entertained, blown away by amazing visuals, and was told a passable story. Does Mute have its issues? Absolutely. Maybe the story would have been better served if it wasn’t so subtle in the meandering portion of Jones’ movies. Yet in the end, I felt satisfied and the puzzle came into focus. Even if Jones and Skarsgard never quite seem able to fully develop a language.