Mammoth tells the tragic tale of globalization and how it effects family units. It shows the lives of three people and the sacrifices they make for their kids. Gael Garcia Bernal is Leo the computer whiz who is about to make lots of money. Michelle Williams is his wife Ellen the doctor. They are too busy with their work that they leave their daughter Jackie (Sophie Nyweide) under the care of Gloria (Marife Necesito) the nanny from the Philippines.
Mammoth perfectly illustrates how people tend to forget what their goal because they’re too busy with their daily routines. Leo and Ellen were too occupied with work that Jackie became too attached with Nanny Gloria. I guess this is a common occurrence around the world.
While in a business trip in Thailand, Leo felt the urge to escape the daily grind and went to the beach. Though thoughts of Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Beach and Gael Garcia Bernal’s Y tu Mama Tambien came to mind, Leo’s experience was a rather tame one. The only immoral thing he did was to have an affair with a Thai hooker named Cookie (Natthamonkarn Srinikornchot).
Ellen is too busy caring for other people’s kids that she doesn’t have time to spend with her daughter. And when she did had a day off from the hospital, her daughter and Nanny Gloria had other plans for the day.
Among the three, Gloria has the most tragic story. She had to go abroad to take care of other people’s kid while her two sons are growing up without a mother. It’s something she has to give up to give her sons a better future.
The difference between the rich and poor was clearly presented in Mammoth. Writer/director Lukas Moodysson did a good job to sell the story to his audience. The characters were complex and yet you could relate to either one of them. It’s a simple reminder that we should not take our jobs seriously and should take some time off to enjoy the company of our loved ones.
Mammoth takes an objective view on the perils of globalization. Even extinct mammoths are unsafe from capitalists who make them into pens. Moodysson painted a tragic picture that would open the viewers’ eyes into what’s really happening in most parts of the world today. To end this on a lighter note, it was nice to see Filipino artists working on an International film. One of these days, Filipino nannies will rule the world.
