The Red Turtle (****1/2)

The Red Turtle is so close to being perfect, and of the Oscar nominees I have seen so far (Zootopia, Kubo, and Moana) this is certainly the best on a technical level. It's a story that isn't as straight-forward as you might expect from the trailer, and it left me thinking about the ideas and themes long after I had left the theater.

On the surface, it's a shipwreck story. A man washes up on the shore of a tiny island that provides all he needs to survive except a companion. On the beach, he has a picturesque view of the endless ocean, beyond is a dense green forest of bamboo. He has food, clean water, and shelter. He even has some crabs that become quite friendly as he plots his escape. Escape: that is his first and only plan.

With dried wood and rope he makes a raft and quickly drifts back out to sea. He has no supplies and doesn't seem apt to survive more than a day or two. As the ocean drops off beneath him, a force destroys his raft, and he is forced to swim back to shore. Time and again he tries to escape, and each time a creature below the water breaks up his boat. We finally see the force that keeps him on the island: a red turtle the size of a man. It doesn't act out of rage, it just floats there, watching this man attempt to leave.

What happens next is both poetic and enigmatic. An act of violence on the man's part leads to a guilt that lasts the remainder of the film. A mysterious woman appears on the beach and the two form a relationship that is almost a reconciliation on the man's part. They have a child. They grow up. The story becomes something that reflects the role of a family as well as the importance of human bonds.

Told entirely with sound effects and a haunting score, the movie achieves great storytelling without the need for dialogue. It's very much reflective, told from the perspective of the man. We often see his dreams and the ideas he has while on the island, and nearing the end of the film we wonder what, if anything, was factual and what was imagined. I will say that while I can't fully say that I comprehend the final moments of the film, the emotional impact it had is lasting. This is produced by Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation house known for Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. It's the first film by the company directed by a non-Asian filmmaker (Dutch's Michaël Dudok de Wit). We feel the European sensibility about the film, and we also can't deny the strong visual style that Ghibli has over it. It's a marriage of styles and art forms, and unlike most cartoons we see today not everything is spelled out for us.