“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” The last place one expects to find a quote from existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard is in a stop-motion animation following the adventures of a young snail-obsessed girl. However, Adam Elliot’s “Memoir of a Snail” wholeheartedly embodies this philosophy.
The film opens with Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook) recounting the numerous hardships she has endured in her short life, including her mother’s death, to her only remaining confidant, a snail named after Sylvia Plath. Despite her mother’s untimely death and her father’s alcoholism, Grace’s childhood is filled with joy. Her father, a paraplegic ex-street performer and animator, ensures that both Grace and her twin Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee) get the most out of their childhood. He encourages his children to embrace their differences, making Grace a beanie complete with dangling eye stocks — an homage to her mother’s love of snails. Unfortunately, this blissfulness of youth is inevitably cut short by their father’s passing, as the twins are separated and launched into lifetimes of challenges, with only the letters they write to keep them connected.
The sheer amount of misery Grace and her brother endure borders on excessive. It’s almost as though Elliot is exploiting every possible misfortune of his creations. Much of the plot progression relies on this barrage of traumatic events, which makes it a difficult emotional rollercoaster for the audience, but one that explores important universal themes and experiences.
The script mostly handles sensitive topics, including grief, addiction, cults and conversion, with a rather macabre sense of humor. Fortunately, it is also peppered with silly humor, raunchy jokes and heartwarming slivers of hope that ease some of the darkness. Written in the style of a memoir, Grace’s narration occasionally feels formulaic, and there are some scenes in which purely visual imagery would have sufficed to communicate the narrative. Still, this biographical style allows us to connect with Grace on a more internal level.
Despite the utterly depressing tone, the movie maintains an underlying sense of hope throughout. Grace meets an elderly eccentric woman named Pinky (Jacki Weaver), whose positive and playful outlook on life embodies the film’s hopeful message. Despite the tragedies she has faced, she refuses to let her life be defined as such. She serves as a true friend and source of inspiration to Grace. In life and after death, she helps Grace realize that she has imprisoned herself in her past and must free herself.
The metaphor of the snail permeates every aspect of the story — from its visual design to Grace’s behavior, as she retreats into a metaphorical shell of solitude and vices to cope with her trauma. It feels slightly exhausted but is an effective device to deliver the film’s message.
The voiceover talent effectively infuses these characters with authenticity and life, but their magic ultimately comes down to the animators behind them. Each character is meticulously designed with such eccentricity and personality that it’s hard to remember they are only made of clay. At the same time, the slightly lumpy look that each character sports amplifies each of their flaws and foibles in an endearing way.
“This film was made by humans,” is the last line of the credits, and it truly epitomizes the movie. Stop-motion animation is often overlooked as a medium for stories handling mature or sensitive topics, but for such an emotional exploration of humanity, this grueling art form seems the most appropriate option. Alongside such an incredible cast of characters, Elliot crafts a breathtaking world full of painstaking attention to detail in every scene. Though the color scheme is austere, an expression of the dullness Grace feels in her desolate life, every scene is truly beautiful and full of life.
“Memoir of A Snail” deals with grief, loneliness, identity, growth, love and so many other important topics. It acknowledges and celebrates the complexity of the human experience and the plethora of emotions that arise during this journey. If you take one lesson from this movie, let it be that there is joy in breaking out of the shells we create for ourselves. Reflecting may be the only way to understand the past, but we cannot let ourselves become so defined by our pasts that we forget to live in the present.
