Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives

I must admit that I was originally drawn to Apichatpong Weerasethakul's UNCLE BOONMEE WHO CAN RECALL HIS PAST LIVES by a single image appearing first in its posters around the internet and art house theaters, and then it's dvd cover on the racks at Hastings. The image is of a dark figure enveloped in the greenery of a forest, it's red-eyes leering at me. The creature seemed to look like a similar creature that terrorized the space family Robinson in Irwin Allen's 1960's tv series "Lost in Space" in one of the better episodes. My thought that these two creatures seemed similar was even confirmed by Weerasethakul, who said that they were inspired by such cheap monsters that he'd seen as a kid. But despite coming in to BOONMEE with an interest in its images, I found Weerasethakul's images drawing me into a more effusive tone of ideas that must die. At the beginning of the film, Weerasethakul begins the enigmatic experience with Boonmee sitting at his dinner table with a couple of family members, only to see his dead wife of many years to appear beside him, converse with her, and prepare to be lulled into his own demise, guided by the already-dead. When Boonmee asks a practical question, he receives no answer, and when his son, transformed into a forest-spirit, "Lost in Space" gorilla creature walks up to the table and sits, we cannot help but feel some sense of hilarity that is carefully intertwined with poignance. Yes, Boonmee is due to die of organ failure, and yes, we can see how these spirits will help guide him, but there is an obvious sense that the spirits are not as omniscient as they should be. Weerasethakul uses long takes to allow these ideas to stir within his audience, and his images are interesting enough to keep us captivated as he does this. As the spirit world becomes present, Boonmee's past lives become apparent, especially one involving a princess who comes to a lake and sees herself as beautiful in her reflection the lake, but also as white. In this one scene is so much history, comedy, and drama it's astounding, and wrapped up in all of Weerasethakul's film are ideas, the dismantling of those ideas, and simple truths evoked through images such as: the forest, the hotel room, watching tv.

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives: ★★★★ out of Five