Do Elephants Pray?, 2010.
Directed by Paul Hills.
Starring Jonnie Hurn, Julie Drey, Marc Warren, Rosie Fellner and John Last.
SYNOPSIS:
An uninspired advertising executive struggles to find any meaning in his life. The arrival of a mysterious free-spirited French woman into his life leads him to question everything.
On the face of it, there are a few possible items of interest in this film. An anti-working world semi-existential philosophical element, a completely un-Hollywood like indie-sensibility and the beautiful French countryside of Brittany, just for starters. However, don’t be fooled. Quite simply, it’s awful.
Concentrating on confused advertising exec. Callum (played by the film’s writer, Jonnie Hurn) and his attempts to make sense of his existence, this attempt at philosophical cinema is often intensely painful to watch. The French ingénue (Julie Drey) who appears in Callum’s life out of the blue spouts hippiefied clichés at the be-suited and besotted Brit until they get naked in the woods (and afterwards as well).
Essentially a no-fun game of two halves, the first section takes an unpleasant and decidedly unfunny look at the London advertising world. Whatever kind of comment on this industry the filmmakers were aiming for is completely lost through sub-standard acting, poor scripting and unstable sound quality. The second part is basically the two leads getting randy and pretentious in the woods.
But is this French pixie part of his imagination? And do elephants pray? And, more to the point, do we care?
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★
Robert W Monk is a freelance journalist and film writer.
Originally published May 22, 2013. Updated April 11, 2018.
