The Elephant King

Coming in under the radar in today's film industry is nothing new, but The Elephant King came in low and is going to strike hard. Wonderful performances from a talented cast only scratches the surface. The imagery and cinematography coupled with the honest story telling make for a must see film. If there's going to be a stand out performance, Jonno Roberts as the conflicted Jake, delivers a powerhouse emotional roller coaster of a ride that should not be missed. Ellen Burstyn is at her amazing best and the beautiful Florence Faivre is both stunning and troubled and can not help but hold the viewer's heart in the palm of her hand. Tate Ellington's Oliver meshes the whole story together seamlessly. Writer-Director Seth Grossman has much to be proud of. Even the use of Thailand as the back drop presents as stunning, haunting and frightening all at the same time. Do not miss this movie.

I enjoyed the way this movie portrayed the relationship between two brothers; and the way they each dealt with their individual problems. The actors who played the brothers both did a fantastic job. Unlike other reviews, I didn't find the showing of different places in that area of Thailand to be overdone, much of it was during the scenes where the younger brother is getting to know the girl, Lek, and play in well to the the story.

One problem with the movie was lack of subtitles during parts where they weren't speaking English. I'm not sure if that was a flaw because of watching it on a DVD or not. It made certain parts of the movie a bit difficult to understand, but it wasn't too hard to get the gist of what was going on.

Deciding to Watch a film like ELEPHANT KING is always a gamble. Ellen Burstyn was the only easily recognizable name. The DVD artwork Layout and synopsis looked interesting; shot mostly in Thailand by an international crew. So I took a chance! Lucky me! This is one gamble that paid off nicely...In the End! And I mean that BOTH literally and figuratively! Here's a direct quote from IMDb: "Jonno Roberts was Nominated for Best Actor at the Sacramento International Film Festival for 'Elephant King'. It won Best Picture and Best Score." Isn't it a rather sad commentary on the realities of film marketing and distribution that an unpretentious little wonder like this, made in 2006, only received LIMITED 2008 theater release, and took another year to be released on DVD?

The first 1/2 of the Blurb I read is erroneous. The author of that Review either didn't actually see it, or didn't pay the slightest attention to its opening minutes. Perhaps the TITLE may conjure up rather grandiose expectations of regal splendor and sumptuous royalty. However, there is certainly none of that here! There is a baby elephant, which besides offering detached moments of poignancy, also serves a pivotal symbolic and metaphoric purpose.... At least it does before the film ends.

The ensemble performances were remarkable. Seth Grossman (Butterfly effect 3) must be complimented on his understated, evenhanded direction, which, when coupled with the outstanding acting; spot on depiction of the vapid, high-energy emptiness of Thailand's nightlife and its minions; the highly believable very late-bloomer coming-of-age transformation and self-discovery of the younger brother central character; Plus the low-key ever-so-slightly surreal Buddhist/Zen spin that is imparted via a bittersweet finale that manages to neatly "THAI" together most of ELEPHANT's loose ends, make it a solid 9********* experience! ............ Before viewing ELEPHANT, I recommend you contemplate this THAI proverb: Patience and Forbearance are always rewarded with Happiness! ..... ENJOY!

I saw this film at the Tribeca Film Festival on its opening night and I was quite impressed. The cinematography was amazing, the soundtrack was awesome, not only the music used but the sound editing choices. But the thing that impressed me the most was the acting. Acting can make or break a film before anything else. Ellen Burstyn delivered a breathtaking performance (as she always does). Newcomer Tate Ellington was absolutely amazing, more than capable of holding his own in scenes where he had to perform head to head with Burstyn (as his mother), he left a memorable impression that makes me want to see him in a lot more films in the future. Jonno Roberts was also quite good, full of energy and emotion.

I saw it last night and was pleasantly surprised. My girlfriend was less than pleased in how it portrayed her home country, however. Apparently, she had seen an interview with Florence Faivre before the movie, in which Florence explained that Thailand is shown in a completely positive light. She went on to say that this is the 'real' Thailand and everyone should come to see the movie to experience how beautiful Thailand is. My girlfriend, while she didn't hate the movie in and of itself, found these comments to be particularly offensive. I must explain that she's a fairly inexperienced girl, who has been exposed only tangentially to the seedier aspects of Thai life (the reason why I care for her so much, perhaps). Her rose-colored glasses couldn't cope with the stark realism the movie portrays.

And it IS realistic. Many westerners come to Thailand to run away from various responsibilities and the movie shows just how easy it is to fall into that world. Indeed, one walk down beach road in Pattaya will show you just how 'zombie-like' foreigners can become here. Of the two brothers in the film, Jake is a wonderfully constructed character. You're definitely not supposed to like him, and Jonno Roberts pulls that off well. Ellen Burstyn is good as the doting old mother, and Tate Ellington plays a passable depressed New Yorker.

For the negatives, Seth Grossman (director) seems to spend about 25% of the film showing us montage scenes of 'life in Thailand'. This mainly seems to focus on tuk-tuk rides and open-air markets. While I understand that the vast majority of audiences won't be familiar with the setting as intimately as us expats are, for a 92 minute film you need to keep the 'atmosphere' shots to a bit of a minimum. Florence Faivre mails in a cardboard performance in badly accented 'Tinglish'. While she's obviously a looker, the voice-acting just didn't do it for me. While the film was often touted as being the vehicle for Diego Quemada-Diez's cinematographic genius, I didn't find it to be too revolutionary (or anything Darren Aronofsky hasn't done better). The most negative thing of all, however, is that they cut MY scene down to about one second! Two days of shooting (and drinking) and I'm on screen for an inaudible 'thank you' when Flo hands me a Singha. Tough business, show business! All in all, I recommend this movie as one to generate a bit of discussion between Thais and foreigners. As some mentioned before, no one really comes out as 'the good guy' here, and that's a pretty realistic depiction of the human condition.