Product Details

• Actors: Michelle Williams, Gael Garcia Bernal
• Directors: Lukas Moodysson
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: MPI HOME VIDEO
• DVD Release Date: April 20, 2010
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B003498RRW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #42,459 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Mammoth" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Gael García Bernal (BABEL, AMORES PERROS) and Oscar®-nominee Michelle Williams (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) star in the English-language debut of internationally acclaimed writer/director Lukas Moodysson. Leo (Bernal) is a successful web developer. His wife Ellen (Williams) is a dedicated emergency room surgeon. Their New York City workaholic ways leave little time for their 8-year-old daughter, who is mostly cared for by their Filipino nanny (a breakthrough performance by Marife Necesito). But when a series of personal decisions triggers a chain of events on the other side of the world, will they discover the rippling effects of life s smallest choices? Thomas McCarthy (THE WIRE) co-stars in this powerful family drama about imperfect lives, fateful actions and the epic ironies that bind us all together.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Four Interconnected Stories That Didn't Connect With Me On An Emotional Level, December 29, 2010

By 

K. Harris "Film aficionado" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Mammoth (DVD)

I had quite looked forward to and expected to enjoy the "Babel"-esque indie "Mammoth." A big fan of the Swedish film "Lilja 4-ever," I was eager to see writer/director Lukas Moodysson's first English speaking endeavor. And yet, while I might acknowledge that "Mammoth" is a well made and well intentioned effort, there was something that was a bit dramatically inert. I was never really drawn into the story, and when it tried for overt emotional connection (musical montage of overlapping characters, a heightened sense of danger and tragedy for the finale), those moments just didn't ring true. It's unfortunate, I think Moodysson is undeniably talented--I think he just tried too hard to build a prestige piece instead of developing a more organic plot line.

Telling four concurrent and interrelated stories, "Mammoth" follows an American businessman to Thailand, stays with his doctor wife in New York, explores the relationship between their daughter and her nanny, and depicts the nanny's family in the Philippines. Gael García Bernal, whom I like a lot, plays the father in this scenario and, unfortunately, the least convincing side to this square. A self proclaimed former hippie, García Bernal has become a success in the field of gaming and looks at the world with an innocence and optimism that made my head explode. Really, he's like a idealistic six year old that has gone overseas to secure a 45 million dollar investment--it's really quite unsettling. His foray into the Thailand culture may lead to temptations he will be unable to resist. His wife, the always welcome Michelle Williams, struggles as an absentee parent and has a particularly hard hitting incident at the hospital. Their daughter is forming a tight knit bond with the nanny (Sophie Nyweide and Marife Necesito respectively, both doing solid work). And the nanny's son in the Philippines is learning to cope with his mother's absence while simultaneously strategizing to bring her home.

We've certainly seen these globalization stories before--and, indeed, there is a familiarity here bordering on cliche. Were it not for a strong and appealing cast, I might have been tempted to check out of "Mammoth" early. The most interesting aspect of "Mammoth" is in the depiction of motherhood. Even though Williams and Necesito couldn't be more dissimilar, they have both sacrificed a close bond with their children for the greater good. These threads that depict the separation by necessity aspect of modern society are really the only time I connected emotionally with the film. Then after close to two hours of introspection (with an unfortunate lack of forward momentum), Moodysson inexplicably layers on a melodramatic finale. I didn't believe the story in the Philippines for one minute, had lost all patience for García Bernal, and thought Williams' trauma too convenient. The movie then ground to a halt and the only character I had real sympathy for was the little girl. So even investing the time, I felt a little chilly as "Mammoth" wrapped up. KGHarris, 12/10.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who's Watching the Children?, July 8, 2011

By 

FMB123 (Fairbanks, Alaska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mammoth (DVD)

The chubby hand of a Thai infant clutches a cellphone into which her prostitute mom sings a lullaby during a break from work. Such images from the modern world cut to the heart of this fascinating, multiply-perspectived look at children, how we try to nurture and protect them, and how these attempts can go terribly wrong.

The century's first decade brought a small trend in movies that linked ostensibly unrelated people in a patchwork of intersecting lives and coincidence (e.g., Babel, Traffic, Crash, Amores Perros). But Moodysson weaves a different web-of-life theme, focusing less on synchronicity, more on interpersonal distance--of mothers from children, husbands from wives, wealth from poverty, our immersion in technology versus a yearning for the natural world.

Mammoth's story spins around Leo, a wealthy Web game designer; his wife, Ellen, an ER surgeon; 7-year-old daughter Jackie; and her nanny, Gloria, who sends her salary home to 2 children in the Philippines. These SoHo dwellers live in a house brimming with material wealth--a fridge overflowing with food, though mom can't do more than slice an apple, a child's room oozing FAO Schwartz--yet the only truly comforting place appears to be a gigantic pillow on which the family plays in the rare moments when all three are together in one place.

Moodysson deftly tacks between NYC, the Philippines, and Thailand, where Leo travels to ink a deal on a new Website, while struggling to enjoy Bangkok's charms. His psychic tension mirrors that of the other characters, who can't seem to derive pleasure from their current surroundings, however superficially copacetic they may be.

Within this global context, the director puts forth a thoroughly unsurprising notion: that despite all that contemporary life enables, children still need their mothers. (The word mammoth itself is connected to the concept of "mother" in Swedish.) Yet 21st-century matriarchs are inextricably tied to economic factors, and thus, children are sometimes left in the hands of other caretakers, who may or may not be up to the task. Not lost on Moodysson is the irony of a world in which mothers must leave their children to go mother others' children for pay.

We learn little backstory on the film's central male character, Leo. It's a well-acted but fairly low-key role for Gael Garcia Bernal, who through much of the movie wears two wristwatches--one set for NY, one for Thailand, though his role in both places feels tenuous. As he's entrenched in an online gaming fortune, his sense of play is flagging, and while the natural world holds some appeal, as it does for the English in E.M. Forster novels, he's perhaps too far gone to fully embrace it. While the elephant Leo spots on the roadside appears to have something to teach him, the closest he gets to this primitive energy is a $3,000 fountain pen made of ivory from a frozen mammoth, with which he signs a $45 million contract. Meeting a young sex worker awakens Leo's protective impulses. However, his own fantasies ultimately trump his ability to give her anything of value.

Michelle Williams plays Leo's wife, Ellen, a physician who works long hours to save children's lives, yet despite her best intentions, struggles to connect with her own daughter. Her work has taken her to the edge of emotional burnout, yet she can't find her own form of nurturance. As the film opens, a badly wounded young patient forces her to question maternal instincts overall.

The film aches with all of its human-made chasms, and it's easy to relate to the irony of a world more closely "connected" than ever, yet so often falling flat in matters of the heart. Through their ubiquitous cellphones, these characters seem to be shouting into the void, while lives hanging in the balance are compromised and even lost.

Given the contemporary world's great challenges to intimacy, Moodysson appears to hold out little hope for our future (as even the film's title suggests). At movie's end, two exhausted characters want to do better but remain trapped on a wheel built of money, overwork, disconnection, and an inability to restructure lives and priorities.

I was surprised to see how many mediocre reviews Mammoth received and to hear that it was even booed at the Berlin International Film Festival. Moodysson is a talented director working at a deep emotional level, which is apparently too subtle for the American Netflix crowd. I greatly enjoyed his 2000 film Together, about a group of Leftist Swedish commune dwellers during the 1970s. But this is a more fascinating, more layered film, which raises many questions for the mothers and children of our modern world.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars learn something., October 2, 2011

By 

manstein - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mammoth (Amazon Instant Video)

excellent. consistent with real life and full of power. medical scenes were realistic too, a rarity in movies and on tv. loved it, like a good book.great acting, scenery, and music. an important message in a gripping story.worth buying or renting. i will watch it again and later again. very glad i saw it today and i hope you are too.