Imaginitive ‘Arco’ depicts a bleak but hopeful future
Quick! “Let’s hide in the library. No one ever goes in there.” That satirical line, spoken by the film’s on-the-lam heroine, Iris, is the perfect summation of the bleak yet hopeful future the Oscar-nominated “Arco” lays out with its “E.T.”-like scenario etched by multifaceted French artist Ugo Bienvenu.
Set in 2075, his film is a double-barreled damnation of our world’s most dire and divisive issues: the environment and technology. What’s most troubling about the scene set by Bienvenu and co-writer Félix de Givry is that raging brushfires, android nannies and busy moms and dads parenting via hologram are the accepted norm for Iris. She’s even taught by droids, who head to the teacher’s lounge each night to line up and power down like off-duty school buses parked in neat, tidy rows.
Is it any wonder that Iris (voiced by Romy Fay in the English-dubbed version) feels so isolated and alone? So, imagine her glee when she rushes to the rescue of a fellow 10-year-old who’s crash-landed after riding a rainbow wormhole from the year 2932. Like E.T., Arco (voiced by Juliano Krue Valdi) is at first disoriented by a world vastly different from his own. His goal was to transport to the Jurassic era, but given his unfamiliarity with the technology of his older sister’s multicolored time-travel cloak, he accidentally wound up here in a place possibly more environmentally toxic than his own.
After narrowly escaping detection by three nerdy brothers (voiced by Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg and Flea) seeking to get their hands on the mysterious intruder for personal gain, Iris lugs the unconscious Arco back to her home, where her mechanical guardian, Mikki (Mark Ruffalo), nurses the boy back to health. But one problem: the powerful diamond fueling Arco’s cape is missing and without it, he cannot return home.
Thus, the scene is set for a charming, albeit a bit plodding, Spielbergian adventure in which Iris finds her purpose in befriending Arco and helping him return from whence he came. And in the process, the children celebrate – and mourn – their vastly different times and places. The emphasis is always on their budding friendship, but Bienvenu also casually uses their conversations to subtly slip in details about growing up with absent parents and the steep environmental challenges of their respective times.
For Arco, it was a great flood, presumably caused by climate change, that left the earth so uninhabitable that survivors erected “Jetsons”-like homes high in the sky, each surrounded by self-sustaining gardens. For Iris, it’s raging wildfires and a society where robots tend to every chore, from child-rearing to restoring infrastructure devastated by severe storms or out-of-control wildfires. Her parents (voiced by producer Natalie Portman and Ruffalo) live in a distant city, so Iris and her baby brother, Peter, only see them in person on select weekends. The rest of the time, they appear as holograms, like at the dinner table, or to read Iris bedtime stories. Very antiseptic.
Bienvenu does nothing to temper the joylessness of Iris and Arco’s solitary existences, but what he has created is highly imaginative, with one foot firmly planted in the reality of an Earth ravaged by piss-poor stewardship. But it’s the universality of the bonds Arco and Iris form that makes the story so compelling. Well, that and the Studio Ghibli-style animation, which is gorgeous. The influence of that iconic entity’s master, Hayao Miyazaki, is all over “Arco,” as are his familiar themes of social conscience and shared humanity.
It’s a lovely, colorful film, but I could have done without the presence of the bumbling triplets and their weird V-shaped sunglasses. Plus, why have Flea, Ferrell and Samberg voice them if you’re not going to provide truly funny things for them to say and do? Thankfully, their screentime is somewhat limited, but they remain a distraction from the story’s beating heart: Iris and her willingness to pull out all the stops to help a friend, even if it means success will once again render her alone and blue.
It’s very sweet, but also tragic and quite moving, even when a droid meets a gruesome end. It, and its fellow nominee, the equally stirring “Little Amelie,” thrive on their embrace of feeling and the accompanying deep dives into existentialism. These are adult animations that deal honestly and openly with subjects that are often considered taboo, such as loneliness and death. Yet they ultimately leave you uplifted. It’s magical, no matter what time and place you live. Bravo, “Arco.”
Movie review
Arco
Rated: PG
Featuring the voices of: Juliano Krue Valdi, Romy Fay, Mark Ruffalo, Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, Flea and Natalie Portman
Director: Ugo Bienvenu
Writers: Ugo Bienvenu and Félix de Givry
Runtime: 88 minutes
Where: In theaters now (limited) and expanding Jan. 30
Grade: B
