Nandor Fodor and the amazing talking mongoose – it’s true
Streaming now
In the 1930s, AustroHungarian-born lawyer Nandor Fodor – Simon Pegg – gains notoriety as the world’s leading parapsychologist by debunking the otherworldly with “believable, observable facts”.
Accompanied by trusted assistant Anne – Minnie Driver – Nandor travels to the Isle of Man at the behest of Dr Harry Price – Christopher Lloyd – from the London Spiritualist Alliance to probe the perplexing case of the Irving family.
Liverpool businessman James Irving – Tim Downie
– and wife Margaret- Ruth Connell – claim a talking mongoose named Gef – voiced by Neil Gaiman – frequents the farm they share with their 17-year-old daughter Voirrey – Jessica Balmer.
Nandor suspects gifted ventriloquist Voissey may be responsible for the mass delusion and farmhand Errol (Gary Beadle) seems to confirm as much when he confides: “You and I both know there ain’t no Gef ”.
However, the elusive mammal knows a great secret about Nandor that shakes the parapsychologist to his sceptical core.
Based on an outlandish true story, Nandor Fodor And The Talking Mongoose is a curiously restrained comedy-drama that flirts with existential questions about faith, fantasy and the positive impact one mysterious creature can have on an entire community.
Writer-director Adam Sigal does not perform any sleights of hand or on-screen wizardry to convince us that Gef might be anything other than a product of Voissey’s ability to throw her voice.
Pegg delivers a solid performance as a man of science haunted by one great loss, and Driver offers lightly effervescent comic relief as his golly-gasping sidekick.
The most famous mongoose since Kipling’s Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.
Nandor Fodor And The Talking Mongoose (UK 12/ ROI 12, 96 mins, Signature Entertainment, streaming now exclusively on Prime Video, available now on digital platforms, Comedy/Fantasy/ Adventure)
Starring: Simon Pegg, Minnie Driver, Christopher Lloyd, Tim Downie, Ruth Connell, Jessica Balmer, Paul Kaye, Gary Beadle and the voice of Neil Gaiman.