TrTm316

This could have been superb, but films with fragmented nonlinear timelines require more care to tie the pieces together than we receive in Orphan. It's a drama depicting major traumas in one character's life, but in reverse time order, inside a wrapper that begins and ends in current times.

Portrayal of the progressively younger main character Renée/Sandra/Karine by Adèle Haenel, Adèle Exarchapoulos, and Solène Rigot were excellent as expected, and young Vega Cuzytek played the child version, Kiki, with skill far beyond her years. Technical aspects of the film were fine.

But completely lacking is anything that provides a causal link from Kiki's experience to her mindset and behavior as Karine. I interpreted Kiki's trauma as one of misadventure, and not one in which blame is due. Nothing in the film shows otherwise. And the drastic change in personality and behavior of her father is given unacceptably short shrift. The end of Karine's tale, her transition to Sandra, and the transition from Sandra to Renée also could have been depicted more explicitly, but the gist should suffice.

Other than that, once viewers understand that these women and girl are the same person, the film is accessible. And unlike some folks, I interpreted the final scene as redemptive, with Renée facing up to what is required of her while having hope and honest intent to return to her newest responsibility when she can.

It's worth watching!

I wanted to like this, but P. U.

A disastrous film does not automatically follow from a theme and major story arc that date to the dawn of science-fiction. Populating it with characters that are as one-dimensional as those of the worst Mission Impossible or Die Hard films is still survivable, although Cryptozoo has even less complexity of plot. Burden it even more, with a deadpan presentation, though, and the film's fate is set: to the slaughterhouse it goes.

You have to feel something for or against the characters, and plot alone is not enough. It's animation, so empathy and antipathy must arise in response to the voices and the faces. In Cryptozoo, these were both horribly done. Through almost the entire film, regardless of how critical the situation, we hear smooth, mellow stylings that would be fantastic in a Perry Como singalong. Imagine badly dubbed films of the 60s and 70s, but with the performers mellowed out on strong anesthetics. The cast here, though, are speaking their native tongue, so they have no excuse.

And the animation fails when it matters most. Yes, the backgrounds are well done, surreal but accessible, keeping your attention and furthering the story. But the faces -- human or cryptid -- might as well be carved in stone. The Minions emote a thousand times more with their yellow bullet heads than these characters do. In Showgirls, only the lead actress regularly presented facial expressions that were disconcertingly at odds with events. This film is worse: from every character in Cryptozoo, "you look nice today" and "please, please don't kill me" are visually indistinguishable.

No story could overcome these failings. What a shame.