Review of Missing Link (2019) by Hnestlyonthesly — 07 Oct 2019

Missing Link is the latest film by the storied Laika Studios, creators of a creepy adaptation of Gaiman’s Coraline, the delightful Boxtrolls, critically acclaimed Kubo and the Two Strings (despite an old teacher friend’s description, “a lifeless movie with no heart”), and the excusable misstep of Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride. Link is good fun, all the quips and sideways political humor of Boxtrolls and the fastidiousness arrangement of a Wes Anderson film.

Kubo and the Two Strings was one the last films Wife and I ever saw at the Camera 12 before it closed, so Laika holds a special place in my heart, even aside from its attempts at telling a bicultural story that reflects my own. Brother told me once that every time Pixar makes a new film they try to conquer a different technical challenge of animation: the water in Finding Nemo, fur in Monsters Inc., Merida’s hair in Brave, etc. With animated movies I’m constantly on the look out for the aesthetics that give the film its signature look and feel. For Laika, it seems like the focus for this project were things like rendering snow and jungles and fabrics of the mid 19th century. The way that the film plays with guns (shotguns and Colt 45s and and purse pistols) and glass is mesmerizing, but a film should not rest on its intricacy alone.

Missing Link is admittedly more of a character study than a plot driven film. Spoilers ahead: the trailer, as one suspects mournfully and with tears in her eyes at the end of one’s first viewing, gives away most of the twists and turns, if not all of the jokes. We know, for instance, that our adventurers ultimately make it to their Shangri-La in the mountains of the Hindu Kush and likewise that they will be captured and placed into an ice cave. We are not aware, however, that our villains will give us metatheatrical gems like, “The people we don’t want here are getting away! Get them and force them to stay!” Our villains, in fact, are a great deal of fun and so very diverse. The film throws quite a lot of shade at the anti-science, white supremacist old boy’s club who mistrust “electricity, suffrage, and evolution,” which, I suppose, shouldn’t feel quite so timely, but does nonetheless.

Our protagonists are capable voice actors, especially Hugh Jackman’s self-assured and a little tone deaf Lionel Frost. The first meeting between Mr Link and Adelina Fortnight feels weird–Adelina seems to recognize Link’s identity too quickly without explanation and then gushes over the discovery on the wrong side of the conversation. I’m left wondering if a much longer film was edited down for brevity or if the writing was clumsy or uneven, which I find harder to believe.

All in all, a fun trip, and I’m surprised it took me this long since its opening to finally get around to it.