A long, strange, postapocalyptic trip
The science-fiction actioner “Snowpiercer” stands out for its strangeness. The film features plenty of familiar train hurtling ’round the globe.
The poor are crowded in the back of the train. Curtis (Chris Evans) is one of the few healthy enough to revolt, going car by car to overthrow the elite, who live in the front in relative luxury.
A strange woman named Mason (Tilda Swinton) carries out the law as dictated by the train’s architect and leader, the mysterious Wilford (Ed Harris). If Curtis gets to Wilford’s berth at the front, he can free the underclass — or stop the train permanently.
“Snowpiercer” is played broadly and often shoots itself in the foot. Swinton’s bucktoothed bureaucrat feels like a reject from Panem, and Octavia Butler’s thankless turn as the mother of a elements — class warfare, decrepit living, terminal velocity — yet you can’t help but admire director Bong Joon-ho’s high-wire act. The film has more in common with semi-forgotten movies like “Zardoz” and “Quintet” than w with “The Road Warrio rior” or “The Hunger Ga Games.” In other w words, buckle up, th there’s weirdness ah ahead.
In the future, E Earth has been fr frozen since an atte tempt to stop global w warming went w wrong. The survivi ing humans exist in a perpetual-motion “train baby” (a kid born onboard) is like a “Matrix” leftover.
Yet this first English-language film from Bong has an interesting look, wild images (one poor guy sticks his arm out a train window, and it freezes clean off) and logic that’s fun to puzzle over.
The nihilism would be cooler if it felt like more was at stake. But if you settle in, it’s one wild ride.