REVIEW: Mystery Movie by Tom Wiggins

You might say that paying to see a mystery film is like entrusting a stranger with your wallet: you hope they’ll make the right choice, but there’s a possibility you’ll be left feeling short-changed.  Nevertheless, I was intrigued when I heard that a mystery film season would be coming to Gloucester Guildhall.  I had my doubts: did I really want to hand my evening over to the mercy of strangers?  After all, one man’s Citizen Kane is another man’s Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.  But this was a stranger with taste - a film programmer no less – whose opinion is relied upon to choose the very films we pay to see.  My film wasn’t being picked by Dave from the down the pub.  It was something that quickly captured my imagination.

And yet, curiosity got the better of me.  The advertising campaign provided the film’s running time and certification, which made way for educated guesses, which nowadays is known as a Google Search.  I didn’t want to do it but Google’s blank search bar looked so inviting.  The devil on one shoulder said I needed to know, while the angel on the other urged me to keep the faith.  The two had a bit of a scrap.  The devil won.  

A week or two later, I found myself queueing up at the Guildhall’s ticket kiosk.  I was burdened with an “educated guess” that hung like an albatross around my neck.  I was ashamed, guilt-ridden.  I felt as if I’d let both myself and Gloucester Guildhall down.  I believed I knew the name of this mystery film.  And then, from the mouth of a person a few places in front of me: “We think it’s Corpse Bride,” she said to the lady at the box office.  My heart sunk.  Her guess matched my—well, Google’s own. 

Not only that, but it was a film I’d seen and - more crucially - didn’t particularly like.  I held my £4 admission fee in a clammy palm.  As the queue to the booth got shorter, my fight or flight mechanism kicked in.  It was a 21^st century dilemma and I had just one debit card transaction to decide.  I peeled the four coins from the palm that had enclosed them, took a tentative step forward and handed them over.  There was no going back.

Ticket in hand, I sat back in the former council chamber with my fellow Mystery Moviegoers. I wondered how many of them knew what I knew.  The stop motion animation of Corpse Bride would polarise opinion, I was sure of it.  Would this be the right film to open a series of mystery films?  Tim Burton, its director, has forged an extremely successful career out of the macabre – enigmatic, pale-faced antiheroes that the whole family can enjoy.  And yet… he’s a little old hat.  His films remain massive box office draws, but his style was so distinctive when he burst onto the scene in the late eighties that he helped to define an era.  Even if you’ve only seen one or two of his films ('Beetlejuice', 'Edward Scissorhands' and 'Sleepy Hollow' among others), you could describe the principles of the style ‘Burtonesque’ within (and this rather goes against them) a heartbeat.  And while he still enjoys a massive cult following and continues to attract a new generation of fans, his style has become predictable, which goes against the conventions he initially set out to subvert.  But enough of the Burton-bashing.  It's by no means an awful film, so I agreed with myself that I'd take the hit and enjoy it as much as I could.  

But the joys of a mystery movie is that you can’t count your corpses before they're exhumed.  As the title sequence began, I recognised it as a stop motion animation, but it didn’t have the usual Burtonesque feel to it.  I felt my eyes adjusting to the frenetic style, to the vibrant colours, to the sheer madness of the title sequence.  In fact, it had quite the opposite feel to Corpse Bride.  And it was Belgian.  I was so relieved! 

That film was A Town Called Panic, a Belgian stop motion adventure from 2009.  I don't know the Belgian for bonkers, but I would imagine that's how its creators would describe it.  Elements of the story often defy logic, but that's all part of the film's charm.  The carefully-constructed set pieces allow ample time for laughs and very little time for thought.  It's so relentless in its pace that the subtitles sometimes struggle to keep up.  But don't write it off as a silly labour of love from some crazy Europeans; it's rare for an animation to be selected at Cannes Film Festival, but it premiered there to wide critical acclaim.  It's something that would appeal to the whole family and I urge you to see it.  The following trailer should give you some idea of what to expect:     

Even the great Mark Kermode had problems synopsising the film without sounding barmy.  Description doesn't do it justice.  It's something that needs to be seen to be believed.   

This leaves one final question: have I given the next Mystery Movie an educated guess?  What?  And risk spoiling the surprise? 

The next installment in Gloucester Guildhall's Mystery Movie Nights screens at 7:45pm on Thursday 13th September.  Tickets cost just £4 per person and can be purchased at the box office or by calling 01452 503050.