A lonely boy's space odyssey in Pixar's ‘Elio'
'Elio' might even be the film that will have you wishing that Pixar would tone down the selfhelp sessions. Dead parents and a kid with a single tear running down his face is a brutal way to start an intergalactic adventure movie for the whole family. We've cared about protagonists with far less immediate trauma. Elio and his aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) are barely holding on when we meet them living on an army base. She's had to abandon her dreams of being an astronaut to be Elio's primary caregiver, and he is a tricky subject - consumed with grief that he can't quite verbalize and channeling all of his energies into a quest to communicate with extraterrestrials. Olga is trying but overwhelmed and Elio feels like a burden. On top of it all, he can't seem to stay out of trouble, whether it's his own making or in self-defense against a local bully. It's no wonder he wants to fl ee for a world of infinite knowledge, voice powered anti-gravity devices and spectacular colors. But life in the cosmos is no walk in the park either. Elio gets immediately entangled in a web of lies, in which he convinces the (we're told) wise aliens of the Communiverse that he is the leader of Earth. Fake it until you make it, Pixarstyle? He's sent to negotiate with Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), a warmongering leader who wants to lead the Communiverse, and learns techniques like 'start from a position of power' and to use a 'bargaining chip.'
Like most Pixar movies, it's building towards a message of empathy. But for a good long while it we're also being taught something akin to the art of the deal. 'Elio' is the work of many people - there are three credited directors, Adrian Molina ( 'Coco' ), who left the project but retains the credit, Madeline Sharafian and Domee Shi ('Turning Red'), and three credited screenwriters involved. And the story stretches in a lot of different directions, making the overall experience a little disjointed and strained. It's most fun when it lets its kid characters be kids - Elio and his new pal Glordon have a ball just playing around in the Communiverse. But the film just takes so long to get there. Dazzling visuals will only get you so far. And those are not without their pleasures and irreverent homages to film tropes in various genres. One of the more questionably intense sequences involves a bit of clone body horror, but perhaps that's an adult projecting a horror element onto something that a kid might just find funny. There's a nice overriding message about parental acceptance and unconditional love - there always is. But in playing it so safe and so familiar, 'Elio' is missing a bit of that Pixar wonder, and mischief. 'Elio,' a Walt Disney Company released in theaters Friday, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for 'thematic elements, some action and peril.' Running time. 99 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.
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