I have always been a big fan of Sci-Fi, the likes of Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Blade Runner being the almost stereotypical choices of entertainment. When meandering through netflix I often go for the unusual, landing on the word cyberpunk MUTE caught my interest right away. A cast including Paul Rudd and Alexander Skarsgård it proved to be a promising recipe for an evening’s viewing.
Opening scene’s bring Skarsgård’s character front and centre, a terrible accident rendering a young boy voiceless, moving forward’s to the year 2035 and the young Leo is now deeply in love with Naadirah, played by Seyneb Saleh, who produces an underwhelming performance through her limited screen time, still create’s the desired sense of mystery, intermittently expressing a guilt ridden conversation throughout.
Skarsgård, despite not even having a page worth of script, still paints a picture of passionate loyalty to his long term partner, he is subsequently launched into a criminal underworld following her sudden disappearance in the middle of the futuristic Berlin. Leo’s relentless search introduces us to the prickly Cactus Bill, played by Paul Rudd (who sports a glorious handlebar beard) who is a dirty surgeon who makes a living through patching up criminals alongside Justin Theroux, who also competes with an equally glorious hair piece.
Leo’s relentless search for his girlfriend brings him unfortunate sites, including an incredibly unsettling scene where two robotic figures engage in something that vaguely resembling foreplay, alongside a wonderful cameo from Dominic Monaghan.
The netflix original was savaged by critics, mainly focusing around the pacing of the show, personally I believe the screenwriters accidently created an excellent mystery movie, on a few occasions throughout the film I had to think as to what exactly was going on, eventually serving up a “sixth sense” moment to answer all the questions.
It follows the theme of netflix, abandoning traditional values that the silver screen holds so dearly and follow visions of the talented, unfortunately those can sometimes go wrong.
Available on netflix now.