Review of Millennium Actress (2002) by Brett W — 30 Jul 2010

The animation in Satoshi Kon's Millennium Actress is absolutely exquisite, as it is with most of his films. And the surreal interweaving of an actresses' life story with the roles she played is also a visual treat. One problem I have with the film, though, is in the crux of the plot, which I thought was too melodramatic to sustain the overall story; Miyoko's bizarre obsession with returning a key to a man she met only in passing as a child. Of course it's meant to also be symbolic of the course that her life took, but this symbolic search doesn't lead anywhere meaningful when we see her at the end of her life. She simply recognizes the pursuit as some sort of motivating factor for existence.

What was she running from, or to? What did she really want? Except for a mother who objected to her profession there was nothing that she was necessarily fighting against, or aspiring to become. So, when she finally flies off in her spaceship ala 2001, it just gives the impression of a storytelling dead-end, or cop-out...and not a satisfying conclusion to a woman's life-long search.