Womb [Blu-ray]

Great Film!
I saw this film at the BFI London Film Festival in 2010 while I was staying in London for a six week holiday. At the time I wrote a review for my blog, here it is: Impeccable execution and a gorgeous film. Amazingly well done, despite the sticky content. The scenery where the film was shot was dark and cold, but with bursts of blue sky occasionally through the clouds. The ocean waves and the cold snowy beaches juxtaposed with beech wood forests was definitely a sight to behold. Rebecca, our protagonist, gave birth to and raised Thomas' clone as her son, even though she must have known she'd feel something other than motherly instinct for him as he got older and looked exactly like her deceased lover. The ending of the film was a bit shockingly Oedipal but also gorgeously executed and just all around well done. I really enjoyed the Q&A with the director and two of the actors because it provided more insight to the location where they filmed as well as what the director wanted to convey...

Oedipus Rex meets Brave New World...
...with a touch of Kafka thrown in. This ultimately unsatisfying film is not for everyone, and certainly not for the prudish. That said, Eva Green's deliciously mesmerizing performance grabs the viewer and doesn't let go. Her characterization is of Oscar caliber, and the weird story almost falls by the wayside...

Womb Service
Some of the previous reviews have gone into great detail regarding the plot of this film, so I will instead address the parts when I wanted to grab the character Rebecca and slap her. Many conversations in the film are done not with words, but with the vacuous stare of Rebecca. Her son, Thomas, asks questions often: about his father, about why the children and parents shun him, what is her relationship to him really. Rather than explain things in a logical way, Rebecca gives curt answers or just stares. Poor kid. Bathing with your child; not a good idea. The concept of cloning a person and carrying them through gestation does not mean that the raising of that child removes the mother/child bond. There are mothers who adopt children and create that bond. Having us believe Rebecca gave birth and raised Thomas and did not have any maternal feelings for him really stretched the bounds of credibility. What totally flabbergasted me was the second half of the film when Rebecca and Thomas...

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