A Filmmaker's Review: "Elephant Song" (2014)

This film is incredibly strange as it first makes you believe it is dealing with the disappearance of a doctor as caused by one of his patients and then, it twists into the fact that maybe the doctor has done something wrong and you don’t know what. The patient (Michael) is then in a battle of mind games with a man called Dr. Green whilst he also reveals information about himself, Dr. Green’s life slowly falls apart before our eyes. Apart from some strong scenes that make realism of the situation, the movie also displays a lack of depth in its dialogue with often predictable conversations and movements. For a long time, the audience are led to believe that the reason that the patient is playing mind games is because he has something to hide when in reality, mind games are actually a sign of trust issues rather than deception. But, with deception being the main theme of the film, I guess they had to try to shoehorn it in with both of them rather than just the correct one.

‘Adapted from a stage play’ is something that has always scared me because in some cases, the dialogue and characterisation is altered for the change of medium but in this case, it hasn’t really been altered in the correct way and it is still too much suited to theatre and not so much cinema. Most of the film takes place in one or two rooms and small scenes flash back and forth in the lives of the main characters. You really do need to pay attention to each character and their lives in order to understand the prologue. But talking about the prologue, I really don’t think that scene needed to be there because it is referred to later when it actually has context. But, from the beginning, it never really makes us question anything, it is kind of just a time filler before the beginning of the credits role.

On a more positive note, the film’s depiction of realism is actually pretty good. The ‘death scene’ is pretty brilliantly done and is definitely realistic of a situation in which one person is suddenly responsible for whether someone else lives or dies because of their health condition. I’m not going to say exactly what happens because I don’t give away spoilers. But the speed of the scene slows down the entire film and makes everything look like it is happening in slow motion when, in fact, everything is actually happening in real time. It is possibly the best scene in the entire film because it has nearly no dialogue and a ton of action, facial expressions and body language in order for the other actors to dictate emotion and situation. It is brilliantly filmed and seriously, is the best thing about the entire movie by a flying mile.

I believe though that the end of the film has no real explanation and you don’t really know why Dr. Green is at the bench with his ex-wife (a situation you actually won’t understand anyway until you’ve watched the entire film and learnt all there is to know about Dr. Green). There is no explanation for the accusation Michael makes, there is no explanation for the actions of James and the disappearance that happens is never really seen as convenient or odd in the way that the resignation is. I’m thinking that though this film had strong scenes like the ‘death scene’, the scene with Michael’s father and the elephant and the scene in which Michael talks about his mother - the film had many shoddy pieces of dialogue which seemed like they were better suited to melodrama than a thriller in which we are meant to feel detached from certain characters. We are supposed to be in a love/hate relationship with the characters and yet, most of the time we just feel a bit distant from them and so, whatever connection was built up previously has kind of fizzled out.

I would say be open-minded with this film. At the beginning it can seem cringe-worthy and tedious. It can seem loose and cheesy, but please stick with it and you’ll see that there are scenes seriously worth watching. Just stick with it please.