Review of Tabu (2012) by Huw G — 31 Jan 2014

A seemingly endless stream of slightly loose Wes Anderson style whimsy. A story is told, but it's rather insubstantial, and the director only cares for amassing fluffy and disparate allegorical motifs, with a wilful disinterest in consistency and depth, and let's not get started on the naive soft-focus romanticisation of colonialism.

A first half of uninvolving melodrama is followed by a period of Mills and Boon, and finally a closing act of pulp tragedy. Trivial and frivolous escapism-lite for middle-class hipsters and infinite-scroll Pinterest fans, with nothing very much to think about beyond frantic movie trope box ticking.

If I've entirely missed the point then I think that's completely the fault of the feel-good melancholia, and possibly some smugness that went over my head too. If only it had made me care, at least for a moment! I really can't say I hated it, I just didn't get very much out of it at all.

Was it all nostalgia? A sentimental ode to memories of innocent childhood interpretations of black and white silent movies? To be completely fair there were hints of interesting characters at times, but they remained undeveloped, always to be lost in a fire hose deluge of ephemera and twee novelty.