Directed by Duncan Jones

Starring: Alexander Skarsgard, Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, Noel Clarke, Seyneb Saleh

What on earth did I just watch? - that's an understatement. I'm still so confused after just coming from Moon and Warcraft director Duncan Jones' latest film Mute, a Netflix original that will probably have you scratching your head throughout it. Jones has done some decent work in the past yet seems to get a lot of slack for Warcraft, but I think he has something quite good to offer at times. He seem's like a director who has a lot of potential,but I'm reeling after seeing this sometimes entertaining, but ultimately flat dud.

So what is Mute about? Well, it doesn't have that much to say (sorry.) Set in a futuristic Berlin, amish bartender and mute Leo (Skarsgard) searches for his girlfriend Naadirah (Saleh) when she mysteriously disappears. Leo's journey takes him across the city where upon he encounters two surgeons, Cactus (Rudd) and Duck (Theroux) who may hold the answers that Leo seeks about the love of his life.

It's plain to see that Jones has taken a lot of inspiration from Blade Runner, quite obviously. And while I have no problem with filmmakers taking inspiration from other films, this is just abnormally ridiculous. How many sci-fi neo-noir films and TV shows can there be that just feel the same? It's a nearly impossible task to do something original with this, but at least take some kind of crack at it. Jones doesn't, and everything feels so uninspired and the world has not enough scaffolding to hold it up and make it interesting. Within that world the music feels like something a student synth pop band would make, and the special effects are an eyesore. There's not too much of it, but when there is it looks very badly edited in. Speaking of, the editing is very choppy, and some of it is glaringly obvious that there must have been something in between cuts and takes, something to make it feel all together. But the editing just feels awfully lazy.

The writing is also a glaringly noticeable misstep, which gives a lot of the actors (except Skarsgard of course) some really bad dialogue which they try to execute well, but most of it never lands and feels so degradable. It would have been interesting for the writing to do something unique with Leo and the fact that he is a mute, possibly giving him more detective work to do that seems interesting and enticing. I'm not too sure how something like this could be executed, but there must be something more than just tracking addresses and showing a photo around to stand out as detective work? The worst part of this writing is that not enough of the plot is explained to us. I went on Wikipedia after watching the film to see if I could try and piece the plot together with some help for it and even they don't have a plot. Things and scenes just happen and they just don't fit together or be explained, and I wouldn't even say this is Jones sprinkling ambiguity in there because it isn't that, it's just frustration.

Skarsgard's performance is a disappointing one. Playing a mute could provide such a good opportunity for an actor, just look at Sally Hawkins' masterful performance in The Shape of Water! But here Skarsgard just looks ill all the time and doesn't do anything intriguing for his character at all. There's nothing to really like about him, and you end up following Rudd and Theroux and how their story pans out to more favour. Rudd is probably the only thing that really holds this film up to something almost watchable. I like seeing Rudd do more serious roles and whilst the dialogue as mentioned isn't great he does a fantastic job with what he has been given, and his chemistry with Theroux's peadophile character (yes, it is as odd as you can imagine) is something worth watching for.

In the end, Mute is a very forgettable experience. Or is it? I still feel so bewildered by this film and what it was trying to do. This is allegedly the second film in a trilogy to Moon, as we see many easter eggs to the film in this one. A trilogy though, after this disaster? I don't have high hopes. Here's hoping Jones can pull himself back up.

3/10