Review of Womb (2010) by Kevin T — 31 Mar 2012

In "Womb," Rebecca(Eva Green) returns to the island where she spent a summer with her grandfather(Istvan Lenart). While reclaiming the family home, stuffed moose and all, she looks up Tommy(Matt Smith), a childhood friend, who she now finds also grown up, along with his friend for the night, Rose(Natalia Tena). Rebecca and Tommy get reacquainted and she accompanies him to an environmental protest prank involving cockroaches. And that's when tragedy strikes. So Rebecca takes the occasion of meeting with his grieving parents(Lesley Manville & Peter Wight) to ask them to sign a form from the Genetic Replication Department.

"Womb" is a well-photographed and intriguing movie that is also occasionally creepy as hell. However, none of that sense of unease comes from the idea of cloning which I will leave to those religious thinkers who might object while ironically also preaching rebirth.(I wish we had seen more of this future which mostly seems centered around innovations in genetic engineering. So, sorry, no flying cars.) No, what worries me is Rebecca's behavior. Since the pacing of the movie is so slow, it is hard to tell how quickly time is passing on screen and therefore how much time she spends with Tommy as adults. If it is as brief as I think it is, then there is something definitely off about her wish for a third chance with him.