VIFF 2020: Jumbo
VIFF 2020The idea of seeing Noémie Merlant – coming out of her breakout role as a cursed lover in Portrait of a Lady on Fire – back in a layered love story is an inherently exciting idea. Jumbo brings this idea to life, putting Noémie Merlant's character, Jeanne, unconventionally in love with an amusement park ride. Whereas on paper the idea is bold and risky, especially for a directorial and screenwriting debut from Zoé Wittock, the result is surprisingly powerful and engaging, never falling victim to its own quirkiness to the point it loses its own emotional core.
The ride or die element within the film is in the way it captures the relationship between Jeanne and Jumbo. Without this emotional backbone, the film would have been lost, feeling more comedic than emotional, without any of the nuance breaking through to audiences. Luckily for the film, this relationship shines incredibly strong invoking legitimate emotion. It should be far from shocking that Noémie Merlant carries much of this film, giving a complex and genuine performance. Universal ideas and emotions are encountered in an engaging sense, through a conversation entirely unique and strange. The film does have some tricks up its sleeve, however, with one of the most shocking being how effectively it works with the visual of Jumbo. Naturally the relationship between Jeanne and Jumbo is hard to understand as Jumbo – amusement park ride – lacks emotion.
While the film does give the ride some means of communication, on paper it still seems to be an uphill battle to get any legitimate emotion much less sexual drive from the machine. The cinematography from Thomas Buelens, mixed with the visuals the film builds in the machine of Jumbo, welcomes this challenge, surprisingly finding an emotional voice from the ride itself in very grounded and nuanced forms. The film also undeniably benefits from having a woman behind the camera, being able to capture female sexuality and emotions in a realistic sense that never feels trivialised or exploited, as is common when a film like this comes with the male gaze creating the story. It is this emotional backbone in universal emotion that also helps the film find a thesis and voice that connects with audiences, therefore giving it legitimate depth.
Where the screenplay, also coming from Zoé Wittock, thrives for the majority of the film's runtime in its romance and drama, there are some areas where it clearly could have been cleaned up. From some unnecessary and distracting comedy to various predictable story beats, Jumbo is a film that dances with taking the next step to being a masterpiece more than it actually earns that elusive title. Overall it feels like the screenplay can lack a confidence, which can be seen no better than the ending. Instead of giving the audience a bold third act that stands tall and proud with its emotion and resolution, the third act attempts to off place some of the seriousness with a mixture of chaos, comedy, and genuine emotion, which fails to form a final lasting piece of the puzzle. Where bits of the film like this are far from bad, they simply lack that final bit of craft to fully elevate the final product which can be explained as a sign of Zoé Wittock's inexperience more than anything else.
With that said, the fact that a film with this setup could find so much genuine emotion in the first place is impressive enough. Countless filmmakers would fail to find the nuance and power of this film's screenplay, but Zoé Wittock builds a film that, while not perfect, still stands proud as an incredibly engaging and satisfying film that is undeniably worthwhile, and is equally emotional as it is unique.
